Assam BJP leader upset over delimitation, attacks CM Himanta

A prominent member of the Assam BJP, four-time former MP Rajen Gohain has resigned on Friday from his position as chairperson of the cabinet-level Assam Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited while taking a swipe at the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Gohain, a former minister of state for the Union, has a significant history in Assam politics.

He had served as the Central Assam’s Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency since 1999, winning four consecutive terms up until 2014 before being refused the party's ticket in 2019.

The former union minister voiced his displeasure with the recent delimitation procedure that led to portions of the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency being included in the recently created Kaziranga Lok Sabha Constituency.

He has also trained gun towards the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma regarding the delimitation exercise.

“The delimitation was done under the Chief Minister’s supervision. I told him repeatedly that the way it has been done, Nagaon would become an easy seat for Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF party. But he did not listen to me, rather the Chief Minister has given this seat to Ajmal,” he told reporters.

Gohain made a solemn reference to his more than two decades of steadfast support for the BJP's philosophy and his commitment to nurturing the party in his resignation letter to the state chief minister.

He also expressed concerns about how the delimitation process might affect the possibilities for the BJP in the future.

He claimed that demographic changes would make it impossible for BJP candidates to win the newly created Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency.

Gohain emphasised his feelings of betrayal and disappointment in his letter.

He asserted the important contribution he had made to the party during a 25-year period, including serving four consecutive terms as a representative of the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency.

The BJP leader had hoped that his experience would have been taken into account and that more attention would have been given to his worries about the Nagaon constituency in the delimitation exercise.

Gohain also said when BJP was not in power in both centre and state, he won as an MP a number of times from Nagaon seat.