Nearly two years after having kept Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on tenterhooks, Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has finally offered to quit. Party sources said Sarma?s decision to quit Gogoi?s cabinet and thereby a timely halt on the brewing dissidence in the party?s state unit happened after the intervention of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Sarma, who was the most trusted lieutenant of Gogoi for over 10 years, started raising the banner of revolt after Gogoi?s son Gaurav joined the party in May 2012. Sarma had even announced his intention of becoming the next chief minister by ousting Gogoi who will be 80 this October.
Even a patch-up failed to hold for long. As the Assamese adage goes ? ?fola baanh jora nalage? (meaning a bamboo once split cannot be rejoined), the Health minister soon garnered support of as many as 46 of the Congress?s 79 MLAs to oust Gogoi. Indirectly putting all the blame on Gogoi for the party?s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in Assam, where the party won only three of the 14 seats, Sarma had even set a deadline for the Chief Minister to quit. However, a timely intervention by the Congress high command averted such a situation. But that was not before Gogoi rushed to New Delhi to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi with a resignation letter, which was rejected.
Interestingly, it was only on May 23 that Sarma openly said Gogoi would have to face the consequences if he continued to remain arrogant. ?Himanta Biswa Sarma is not interested to remain a minister under Tarun Gogoi,? Sarma had himself said then.
However, after returning from New Delhi on Sunday where he met several senior Congress leaders, Sarma went straight to Gogoi?s residence, and offered to resign. ?We have quit the battlefield. From Monday, we will not like to take to any question on these matters,? Sarma said. He also said 46 MLAs of the dissidents? camp have decided not to create any situation that might further deepen the crisis for the party.
Meanwhile, Gogoi met Sonia on Monday and discussed cabinet reshuffle. Sources said he would soon reshuffle his ministry and drop some of the ministers who had joined the dissidents? camp. Whether Gogoi will drop Sarma or not, however, remains a big question. At least four ministers, Ardhendu Kumar Dey, Gautam Roy and Siddique Ahmed are most likely to be dropped.