Ministers support Gogoi's mass resignation proposal

GUWAHATI: Chief minister TarunGogoi's statement that instead of dropping one or two ministers as demanded by the 'dissidents', all 18 ministers should resign and his assurance that he would follow suit has found support among most of his ministers.
At least three senior ministers came out in the open to pledge their support to Gogoi's leadership but education and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma refused to take sides.When contacted, he said, "I do not want to say anything on the chief minister's comment now."
State forest and environment minister Rockybul Hussain said, "I fully support the chief minister's view. If the situation arises, I will never hesitate to resign first." Similarly, agriculture minister and parliamentary affairs minister Nilamani Sen Deka said, "The chief minister is our leader and I will support his decision and his choice." Revenue minister Prithivi Majhi said, "The chief minister is our leader and we will support him."
It was a political masterstroke by the seasoned Gogoi - who enjoys the confidence of AICC president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh - to put the ball in the court of the 'dissidents' with his en masse resignation proposal.
Several parliamentary secretaries, who are among the disgruntled MLAs of the state Congress unit, earlier threatened to quit if Gogoi was not replaced.
At least five disgruntled MLAs -who were camping in New Delhi for the last few days to meet either Sonia or Rahul to apprise them of their grievances against Gogoi - returned to the state on Thursday without meeting the two leaders.
"We met AICC secretary Pervez Hashmi and told him about the functioning of the government and about some inefficient ministers. We told Hashmi that things need to be streamlined in the state before the Lok Sabha election," one of the 'dissident' MLAs said.
The 'dissidents' floated a rumour that AICC has sent AICC secretary Madhusudan Mistry to the state to assess the situation following the dissidence. However, Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita said, "He (Mistry) has come here purely on organizational matters, to assess the party's preparedness for the Lok Sabha election. He is not meeting any MLAs or ministers but party office bearers from all districts committees."