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Tag: Akhil Gogoi

  • Akhil Gogoi suspended from Assam Assembly for disturbing Governor’s speech

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi was on Monday suspended from Assam Assembly for repeatedly raising the issue of employment to one lakh youths as promised by the BJP government during the address of Governor Jagdish Mukhi on the first day of the Budget session.

    Speaker Biswajit Daimary asked Gogoi to leave the House for the duration of the Governor’s speech.

    Gogoi didn’t leave the House and showed a placard, following which Marshals dragged him outside.

    The Governor continued to read his 38-page speech.

    Mukhi said, “To fulfil one of the key poll promises, the government has set in motion the process to provide one lakh jobs to our youth.”

    He then mentioned several steps being taken by the state government to recruit youths in various posts.

    Apart from the one lakh employment to the youths, Gogoi tried to raise other issues like paddy procurement from farmers, land rights to indigenous people and corruption in water supply scheme while Mukhi was speaking.

    Everytime he sat down after the Speaker had asked him not to disturb the Governor’s speech.

    As soon as the House reassembled after the governor’s address, the speaker revoked the suspension of Gogoi.

  • Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal names second candidate for Assam bypoll

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Opposition Raijor Dal on Friday announced its second candidate among the five assembly seats in Assam, where bypolls will take place on October 30.

    Addressing a press conference here, Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi said his party’s nominee Sanjib Gogoi will contest for the Mariani seat in the upcoming byelections.

    The party has fielded Dhaijya Konwar from the Thowra assembly constituency.

    “Sanjib Gogoi will contest the Mariani seat. It is my home constituency and we are very sure to win it,” the party president said.

    Asked about the possible association with the Congress, Gogoi said, “We were the first to propose one opposition candidate to defeat the BJP, but the Congress did not show any interest. When we have announced our candidates, then they are offering us one seat.”

    He said his party will not leave Thowra seat but is ready to consider the Congress’ proposal if they get support in the constituency.

    “If they (Congress) support us, then we will campaign for them in the remaining four seats,” Gogoi said.

    Thowra and Mariani seats were bagged by the Congress in the assembly polls held earlier this year, but the MLAs resigned and joined the ruling BJP.

    The other three constituencies, which are going for polls, are Bhabanipur, Tamulpur and Gossaigaon.

    The Majuli seat also fell vacant, but the election will not be held this time as its representative, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had resigned from the House just hours after the bypoll schedule was announced by the Election Commission on September 28.

    Akhil Gogoi is the lone legislator from the Raijor Dal in the assembly and was elected as an Independent.

    The Assam Congress on Friday announced that it will contest four seats out of six, where bypolls will be held in the days to come, and left one constituency each to the Raijor Dal and the Assam Jatiya Parishad.

    The two regional parties, which had contested the March-April assembly elections separately from the Congress-led grouping, have not finalised their decisions to accept the offer from the grand old party.

    Meanwhile, the CPI, which was a part of the Congress-led Grand Alliance during the assembly elections, fielded Krishna Gogoi from Thowra.

    The Congress, which was in power for 15 years in Assam since 2001, had formed the Grand Alliance with the AIUDF, BPF, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM), RJD, Adivasi National Party (ANP) and Jimochayan (Deori) Peoples Party (JPP) to fight against the BJP-led NDA in the assembly election this year.

    In the 126-member Assam assembly, the BJP’s strength at present is 59.

    The ruling allies — the AGP and the UPPL has nine and five MLAs respectively, while the Congress has 27 legislators, the AIUDF has 15 members, the BPF has three and the CPI(M) has one.

    There is one Independent member.

  • Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal to contest two seats in Assam by-polls

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Opposition party Raijor Dal (RD) on Wednesday said that it will contest two out of five assembly seats in Assam where by-elections will be held on October 30.

    Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi said that the party has decided to contest Thowra and Mariani seats and hopes to win both.

    The two constituencies were bagged by Congress but its MLAs later resigned and switched over to the BJP.

    “Dhaijya Konwar will contest Thowra on behalf of RD, and we will declare our Mariani candidate soon,” he told reporters.

    He also appealed to the Congress, with whom RD had tried to project common candidates for the by-polls to defeat the ruling NDA, to support their nominees.

    “If the Congress supports us, we will campaign for them in the remaining four seats,” Gogoi said.

    By-election will also be held in three other seats in Assam — Bhabanipur, Tamulpur and Gossaigaon.

    Though Majuli is also vacant, by-poll will not be held there this time as Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal resigned from the MLA’s post just hours before the schedule was announced by the EC.

    Gogoi is the lone RD legislator in the 126-member assembly, and he was elected as an Independent.

    The BJP now has 59 MLAs, while its allies AGP has nine, and UPPL has five legislators.

    Congress has 27 lawmakers, AIUDF 15, BPF three and CPI(M) has one member in the House.

  • After AIUDF’s exit, activist-turned-politician Akhil Gogoi meets Rahul Gandhi for alliance in Assam

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam activist-turned-politician Akhil Gogoi met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Wednesday for an alliance between his Raijor Dal and the grand old party.

    Recently, an already weakened Congress severed its ties with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), protesting the leaders of the minority-based party singing paeans of ruling BJP and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

    Gogoi sees this as an opportunity to fill up the vacuum created by the AIUDF by offering the Congress his support to ensure that his fledgling Raijor Dal could ride piggyback on the banner of the national party.

    The Congress and the AIUDF were two key components of a grand alliance of Opposition or “Mahajot”. It was formed ahead of last elections to defeat the BJP.

    The Congress’s state leadership is averse to a political alignment with Raijor Dal and made it known in no uncertain terms. However, Gogoi still met Gandhi to try and secure the alliance.

    “I met Rahul Gandhi and Mukul Wasnik. We discussed how we (opposition parties) can fight to restore the federal structure of the country, the recently-held Assam elections and the upcoming by-elections in the state,” Gogoi, who is Raijor Dal’s lone MLA, told journalists.

    ALSO READ | Don’t weaken ‘Mahajot’, AIUDF tells Congress after being removed from alliance in Assam

    Praising Gandhi for his political maturity and experience, he said the Congress duo had clearly stated that there should be an understanding.

    “Since the Congress high command favours the alliance, the party’s state leadership has to accept it. If they do so, the BJP will be uprooted in Assam,” Gogoi asserted, adding, “If the BJP is to be defeated, we have to unite. We will defeat BJP in upper Assam.”

    The Congress’s state president Bhupen Kumar Borah, who left for Delhi on Thursday, told this newspaper that the state unit would abide by the decision of the party’s central leaders.

    “I will meet all top leaders of our party and apprise them how he (Akhil Gogoi) attempted to belittle the Congress in public with his statements such as ‘Congress is a setting sun’, ‘Congress cannot do well under Rahul Gandhi’ etc,” Borah said.

    He added that the Congress workers were unhappy over such remarks.

    One reason behind the Congress’s defeat in the last elections was its dismal performance in Assamese-majority upper Assam where a strong sentiment of Assamese sub-nationalism works and where people view the AIUDF as the protector of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

    The Congress-AIUDF poll tie-up had helped the minority-based party more than the grand old party.

  • Total political anarchism in Assam, CM Sarma’s word only law, says MLA Akhil Gogoi

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Hitting out at the Himanta Biswa Sarma government in Assam, Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi on Friday claimed that “political anarchism” is on the rise in the state, with the word of the chief minister having become the only law.

    Addressing a press meet, he expressed dismay over the increasing number of police encounters since May, and said that the Constitution is no longer abided by in the northeastern state.

    “If the chief minister dreams of something, the next day a Cabinet meeting is called and all that he dreamt of becomes the law without any discussion or procedure.

    Whatever the chief minister says becomes the law here.

    “Such a situation has never been encountered in the political history of Assam since Independence. 1 There is total political anarchism in the state. I have read that 56 encounters have taken place since the Sarma-led government assumed charge,” the Raijor Dal chief alleged.

    Gogoi also stressed on the need for unity among Opposition parties to defeat the BJP in the state, and said the ball lay in the court of the Congress as it would have to decide if it wanted to forge an alliance with the Raijor Dal for by-polls in the state.

    “We have made our intentions clear. It is now on the Congress, the main opposition party in the state, to demonstrate whether they want to establish true democratic politics once again and defeat the traitors. 

     “If the Congress fails to put up common candidates with us in Thowra, Mariani and Gossaigaon, we will understand that it is actually an arm of the BJP,” he stated.

    Congress MLAs of Thowra and Mariani left the party to join the BJP, shortly after the new government under Sarma took charge.

    By-elections are also due in Gossaigaon and Tamulpur, where incumbent legislators have died.

    The Majuli constituency is likely to fall vacant with the induction of sitting MLA Sarbananda Sonowal in the Union Cabinet, though the former CM is yet to put in his papers.

    The Independent legislator further referred to a recent letter by Sarma to the prime minister, reportedly urging for merger of Assam assets of ONGC with Oil India Ltd (OIL), and questioned how people could silently sit and watch when a major branch of the ONGC is set to lose its identity, thereby depriving local families of their only means of livelihood.

    “In my constituency Sivasagar and its neighbouring areas, almost every family has its main income sourced from the ONGC, be it in the form of a job or indirect employment. We cannot allow the government to put their future at stake. Our party will hold an agitation against it,” he maintained.

    Gogoi, during the press meet, also slammed the Centre for “pushing the country into an economic crisis”, with every sector bearing the brunt of its decisions.

    “Three curses of the Modi government have taken our country into its current state of economic distress – demonetisation, introduction of GST and unplanned lockdown.

    “The central government has gone bankrupt but it is ashamed to admit it. Hence, it is selling the public property acquired over the years,” the Raijor Dal chief said.

    He insisted that the “solution lies in ousting the NDA government” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    “The Raijor Dal has initiated talks with regional parties across the country. We will have to work together to throw this government out of power,” he contended.

    Gogoi’s party, which is yet to get registered by the Election Commission, has held several rounds of talks with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, according to sources.

    The MLA further alleged that the country’s media has been “neutralised” by the Narendra Modi government.

    He sought to know why the media was “maintaining silence” over the drop in the prime minister’s popularity ratings in a survey conducted by an US firm.

    “One of the specialties of this Modi government is the way it has neutralised the media in the country.

    Narendra Modi’s popularity rating has decreased by 16 points, but the media is not talking about it,” he stated.

    According to a survey by an American data firm, Modi’s approval ratings have recently dipped to 66 per cent from the previous 82 per cent in August 2019.

    “Barring a very few exceptions, most media houses look like Doordarshan now, like government-run media (organisations),” the Raijor Dal president added.

  • Himanta most communal, divisive CM in history of Assam: Akhil Gogoi

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Hitting out at Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the cow protection bill, MLA Akhil Gogoi said he will be remembered as the “most communal and divisive CM” in the history of Assam.

    Addressing a press conference here, Gogoi apologised to the people of Assam for not being able to stop the passage of the bill as he was the lone MLA from his Raijor Dal.

    “When the bill was passed on August 13, I could not sleep that night. This is a devastating act, which will destroy the communal harmony among people and ruin the rural economy.”

    “Assam will remember Himanta Biswa Sarma as the most communal and divisive CM. He is the most dangerous CM and the people of Assam are not safe under his rule,” Gogoi alleged.

    He equated the passing of the bill with the demolition of Babri Masjid and said both are equally dangerous incidents for destroying the Hindu-Muslim unity of the country.

    On August 13, the Assembly passed The Assam Cattle Preservation Bill, 2021, seeking to ban cattle slaughter and sale of beef in the areas where Hindus, Jains and Sikhs are in a majority or within a five-kilometre radius of a temple or satra (Vaishnavite monasteries) or any other institution as may be prescribed by the authorities.

    Gogoi also alleged that Sarma misquoted Mahatma Gandhi during his speech while passing the bill.

    “He (Sarma) lied in the House in reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s statements. Has he not killed Mahatma Gandhi again? Why should we not call him the second Nathuram Godse?” Gogoi said.

    Stating that banning beef will hurt the freedom of choice of food, the MLA apologised to the people, especially Muslims and Christians, for not being able to stop the passage of the legislation.

    “This bill is going to destroy the rural economy and will lead to severe inflation. We have already seen price rise in other meats, eggs and fish after the bill was introduced. All dairy farmers will be impacted by this as they will not be able to sell their non-milking cows for slaughter.”

    “The market involved with purchase and sale of cows will be severely impacted. The size of this market is Rs 20,000-30,000 crore, most of which is in rural areas. Now, this will be impacted,” he claimed.

    Though the BJP-led government has brought in the Act to hit the Muslim community, in the end, it will hit hard the indigenous Hindu people of the state who are dependent on the cattle economy, Gogoi asserted.

    Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Minister Atul Bora on August 4 had informed the Assembly that Assam produced 33.68 lakh kg of cattle meat and 1.59 lakh kg of buffalo meat during 2019-20 out of a total meat production of 5.3 crore kg.

    Bora had said as per the 20th Livestock Census in 2019, Assam has a cattle population of 1.09 crore and buffalo population of 4.22 lakh.

  • Assam AIUDF MLA claims Akhil Gogoi sought Rs 10 crore from his party before polls

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MLA Aminul Islam claimed Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi had sought Rs 10 crore from the minority-based party ahead of the formation of Raijor Dal which the activist heads.

    Islam said Gogoi had asked for the money to strengthen Raijor Dal ahead of its formation. The activist was then in judicial custody and Raijor Dal was a mere idea. Its name was also not decided, Islam said.

    An effort was then being made to include the party, which Gogoi and others were going to float, in the Congress-led grand alliance of opposition parties, of which the AIUDF is a part.

    The activist rubbished the AIUDF MLA’s claim.

    “I am, perhaps, the most honest person in Assam’s political spectrum. You cannot compare such people with me. I always work honestly in my public life for the welfare of people. I don’t work for a communal party and never make a communal statement,” Gogoi said.

    Describing Islam as “out and out a communal person and a fraud”, the activist said, “I don’t give any importance to what such people say.”

  • Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi says he admires Mamata but turns down TMC’s merger offer

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Assam activist and MLA Akhil Gogoi said his party Raijor Dal had decided against merging itself with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as proposed by the latter.

    “We had three rounds of discussions with the TMC and I took part in each one of them. TMC leaders and election strategist Prashant Kishor were there. They had requested me to lead the TMC’s Assam unit as president. However, as we are working towards emerging as a regional force, we never thought of merging our party with another party,” Gogoi told journalists in Guwahati on Monday.

    He said the TMC had made the offer based on Kishor’s survey.

    ALSO READ: Akhil Gogoi to join Opposition ranks? Activist gets call to merge party with Trinamool as Raijor Dal seals deal with Congress in Assam

    “West Bengal’s PWD and Law Minister had told me Prashant Kishore had undertaken a comprehensive survey of Assam. The minister said Kishore had stated Raijor Dal is an emerging political party and if an alternative to BJP has to be worked out, it has to be by taking Raijor Dal and Akhil Gogoi along,” the activist said.

    He said Raijor Dal is a regional party which represents the aspirations of the people of Assam. He said the party discussed the TMC’s offer threadbare and decided against merger.

    “We have decided to send a proposal to the TMC. We want to remain as a regional force and work with the TMC and other regional political parties to secure federalism. The BJP is trying to break the country’s federal structure,” Gogoi alleged.

    He said TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the leader that he admires the most among politicians for consistently speaking for federalism.

    “I admire Mamata Banerjee the most among politicians. We will work under her leadership for a federal structure. If the regional forces in the country project her as the prime ministerial candidate in 2024, we will support it,” the activist said.

  • Akhil Gogoi to join Opposition ranks? Activist gets call to merge party with Trinamool as Raijor Dal seals deal with Congress in Assam

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI:  Activist and Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi on Sunday said an effort was being made to form a confederation of regional parties led by West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to try and oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

    “Our interest is that all regional political parties in the country should unite, form a confederation, project Mamata Banerjee as its leader, unseat the fascist and communal Narendra Modi and elect a new PM in 2024,” Gogoi, who recently visited Kolkata, told journalists in Guwahati.

    “We hope the confederation of regional parties will be formed as early as possible,” he said.

    The Raijor Dal MLA said the formation of a confederation of regional parties will also help federalism. 

    “The people of Assam have been fighting for federalism and a federal structure from before independence,” Gogoi said.

    He disclosed that West Bengal CM had made an offer to him to join the TMC and merge Raijor Dal with it.

    “Mamata didi had invited me for a discussion. Their proposal was that Raijor Dal and I join the TMC at the earliest and become the TMC’s Assam unit president,” the activist said. He said his party would discuss the proposal and take a call.

    “We thank Mamata didi that she invited us three times. Our leaders already had discussions with TMC leaders,” he added.

    “We aim to form a confederation of regional forces and project Mamata Banerjee as its leader to remove the Narendra Modi government from power in 2024,” he told reporters.

    Gogoi claimed that Banerjee has assured him of the TMC Assam unit president’s post if Raijor Dal is merged with the ruling party in West Bengal.

    He said that three rounds of talks between the TMC and Raijor Dal over the issue have already taken place, with the legislator visiting Kolkata for discussions.

    Assam TMC president Gopinath Das said that the talks were held in the West Bengal capital.

    “There were no talks with Raijor Dal in Assam. Madam (Mamata Banerjee) is pursuing it,” he said.

    The TMC does not have any MLA in the Assam assembly at present.

    Gogoi said that Raijor Dal’s efforts to form a confederation of regional parties is in keeping with its belief in the federal structure and the need to strengthen it.

    The Sibsagar MLA scripted history this year by becoming the first person in Assam to win an assembly election from behind the bars.

    Jailed since December 2019 for his alleged role in violent anti-CAA stir in the Assam, Gogoi walked out free on July 1 this year after a special NIA court cleared him of all charges.

    Meanwhile, Raijor Dal on Sunday held a meeting with Congress on forming an alliance to contest the upcoming Assembly by-polls and decided to jointly protest against “anti-people” policies of the BJP-led Assam government.

    Congress working presidents Rana Goswami and Jakir Hussain Sikdar visited the Raijor Dal’s headquarter in Guwahati to meet Gogoi and other senior leaders.

    “We decided to fight together from a single platform against all anti-people policies of the BJP. We will work together on any social problem,” Goswami told PTI after the meeting held on Sunday evening.

    The Congress wants to have a long-lasting relationship with the Raijor Dal, at least till the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2026 Assam Assembly elections, he added.

    “We also spoke about forming an alliance for the upcoming Assembly byelections. This is just a preliminary meeting and several more rounds will take place. The final decision of an alliance will be taken by the top state and central leaders,” Goswami said.

    By-elections are required in five Assembly seats due to deaths and resignations of legislators.

    Before the Assembly polls held earlier this year, both the parties had called for a united platform of all opposition parties to defeat the BJP, but Raijor Dal expressed its reservation in joining the Grand Alliance due to the presence of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in it.

    Commenting on Sunday’s meeting, Gogoi said that the Raijor Dal is ready to join the Grand Alliance provided the AIUDF exits the grouping.

    “Like the BJP, the AIUDF is also a communal force. Our stand is clear that we will not be in a platform where AIUDF is present,” he told reporters.

    Gogoi, the MLA of Sivasagar constituency, said that the Congress and the Raijor Dal must be united in order to defeat the BJP in the byelections.

    The Congress, which was in power for 15 years in Assam since 2001, formed a ‘Grand Alliance’ with AIUDF, BPF, CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM), RJD, Adivasi National Party (ANP) and the Jimochayan (Deori) Peoples Party (JPP) to fight the BJP-led NDA in the Assembly election this year.

    In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the BJP bagged 60 seats, while its allies AGP won nine and UPPL six.

    In the opposition camp, the Congress won 29, AIUDF 16, BPF four and CPI(M) got one seat.

    The Raijor Dal secured one seat, Sivasagar, as Gogoi won as an Independent.

    One MLA each of United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) has died, while two Congress legislators have resigned to join the BJP.

    Former chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who joined the Union Cabinet as a minister, is yet to submit his resignation paper in the Assembly, but is likely to do so in the coming days.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Effort being made for Mamata-led confederation of regional parties to oust BJP from Centre: Akhil Gogoi

    Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Activist and Assam MLA Akhil Gogoi on Sunday said an effort was being made for the formation of a confederation of regional parties in the country to try and oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP from power.

    “Our interest is that all regional political parties in the country should unite, form a confederation, project (Trinamool Congress president and West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee as its leader, unseat the fascist and communal Narendra Modi and elect a new PM in 2024,” Gogoi, who recently visited Kolkata, told journalists in Guwahati.

    “We hope the confederation of regional parties will be formed as early as possible,” he said.

    The Raijor Dal MLA said the initiative for the formation of the confederation of regional forces was also for federalism. He said an effort was being made towards this perspective.

    ALSO READ | TMC launches new slogan for Mamata Banerjee’s bypoll campaign from Bhowanipore constituency

    “The people of Assam have been fighting for federalism and a federal structure from before independence,” Gogoi said.

    He disclosed that the West Bengal CM had made an offer to him to join the TMC and merge Raijor Dal with it.

    “Mamata didi had invited me for a discussion. Their proposal was that Raijor Dal and I join the TMC at the earliest and become the TMC’s Assam unit president,” the activist said.

    He said his party would discuss the proposal and take a call. 

    “We thank Mamata didi that she invited us three times. Our leaders already had discussions with TMC leaders,” he added. 

    Raijor Dal was floated last year against the backdrop of the protests against controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Gogoi is the party’s lone MLA. He had won the elections from Sivasagar contesting as an Independent candidate.

    Asom Jatiya Parishad, another regional party floated against the backdrop of the anti-CAA protests, also contested the polls but drew a blank.