A week after he resigned from his position as the Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited chairman, owing to disgruntlement over how the ongoing delimitation process will affect his constituency, former Union minister Rajen Gohain said that he met union minister Amit Shah.
After meeting him, Gohain said that he is not going to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Gohain told reporters at the Assam House in Delhi that he had a long and fruitful conversation with Shah. “I met Shah and told him about my grievances, he listened to me nicely. I did not go asking for a ticket, that was not the intention for me. We had a long and fruitful conversation,” Gohain said.
He also ruled out going back to being the chairman of the state food corporation. “Shah and other senior leaders have been working for the sangathan for so long, he knows what I am talking about. There’s no question of taking back the position,” Gohain said. There has been sustained speculation that Gohain might contest from the newly-formed Kaziranga constituency on a Congress ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Gohain’s disgruntlement had brought forward the infighting within the Assam unit of the BJP, with older leaders of the party reportedly being miffed with newer entrants to the party being given plum positions. Apart from Gohain, former union minister Ramen Deka, too, had met the party leadership over a similar complaint.
Dismissing reports of infighting, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday told reporters in Delhi that after Gohain was unsuccessful in getting an appointment with BJP leaders, he gave Shah’s phone number to Gohain. “He must air his grievances with the leadership and they will take a call. It is incorrect to say that there is an old-vs-new conflict in the BJP. Two of us chief ministers (former CM Sarbananda Sonowal and him) were from outside the party, would we be leading the state if there was an issue,” Sarma had said.
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