From Sandeep Sharma
GUWAHATI: In yet another setback for the opposition Congress, former minister and president of Majuli District Congress Committee (MDCC) Rajib Lochan Pegu resigned from all posts of the party on Tuesday.
Pegu’s resignation came at a time when Majuli MLA and former chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was about to get a berth in the Union cabinet, which is to be expanded shortly.
Pegu would join the saffron camp soon and fight from the Majuli seat in the by-election.
Sonowal left for New Delhi on Tuesday to meet central leaders for a probable berth at Modi’s to-be-extended cabinet. If he is made a minister, it will necessitate a bye-election in Majuli.
Pegu, a former minister, won the Majuli assembly constituency three terms since 2001, before losing the 2016 and 2021 polls to the BJPs Sarbananda Sonowal, who was the chief ministerial candidate in 2016.
“He has tendered his resignation from the position of district chief to the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president today,” APCC general secretary and party spokesperson Apurba Kumar Bhattacharjee said.
Pegu quit the position owing moral responsibility for the party’s defeat in the assembly elections, he added.
He has not resigned from the primary membership of the party, Bhattacharjee said.
A few days back, four-time Congress MLA from Mariani Rupjyoti Kurmi and woman leader Jury Sharma Bordoloi left the party and joined BJP.
Within two months of the BJP-led coalition government assuming charge for a second term in the state, two senior leaders have left the Congress and joined the BJP.
They are four-time MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi, who was the lone legislator from the Tea Tribe community in the Congress, and Guwahati district president Jury Sharma Bordoloi.
In the last month the APCC president has sent a team to Majuli to review the political situation in the river island after the BJP came to power for the second term.
