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Congress suspends sacked Education Minister of Assam

Sushanta Talukdar

AGP, BJP demand resignation of Chief Minister Gogoi

Guwahati: The Congress has suspended the former Assam Minister, Ripun Bora, from its primary membership.

Following his arrest by the CBI on bribery charge, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi dropped him from the Cabinet on June 3.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita told The Hindu that Mr. Bora’s suspension got delayed as the decision required the approval of the All-India Congress Committee of which Mr. Bora was a member.

“The Congress is the oldest party of the country which had never compromised on its principles and ideology. Hence the action against Mr. Bora was taken to uphold the sanctity and ideology of the party,” Mr. Kalita said.

Protest rally

Hundreds of Congress leaders and workers took out a procession from the Rajiv Bhavan here opposing the demand for the resignation of Mr. Gogoi.

The Asom Gana Parishad and the Bharatiya Janata Party had demanded the resignation of Mr. Gogoi on the issue.

Mr. Gogoi and Mr. Kalita ridiculed the resignation demand and said there were a number of leaders in the Opposition who faced criminal charges and were even charge sheeted by the CBI. But these parties never took any action against them.

The AGP alleged that Mr. Gogoi and the Congress were only trying to divert the attention of the people from the Bora episode by indulging in mudslinging.

The State unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha demanded a CBI probe against all those Ministers who were facing criminal charges.

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