Guwahati, March 9: The Congress today cleared the names of four sitting Lok Sabha MPs, including chief minister Tarun Gogoi?s brother Dip Gogoi. However, the fate of six others hung in the balance as the ruling party drew up the first list of candidates for the parliamentary polls.
The list, which was prepared by the state election panel today, would be forwarded to the Congress central election panel for finalisation.
Gogoi is scheduled to leave for Delhi with the list in a couple of days. The central panel?s meeting is scheduled for Sunday, after which the list will be forwarded to the high command for approval.
A well-placed source in the state Congress revealed that the four MPs who have breasted the tape are the chief minister?s brother Dip Gogoi (Kaliabor), PCC chief Paban Singh Ghatowar, Bijoy Handique (Jorhat) and Santosh Mohan Dev (Silchar).
Those who attended today?s meeting were Gogoi, Ghatowar, Dev, health minister Bhumidhar Barman and AICC observer Chandan Bagchi. The source said the fate of the six remaining MPs ? including Mani Kumar Subba from Tezpur and Rani Narah from Lakhimpur ? were in the hands of the central panel. ?Apart from the names of the sitting MPs, there are three new names against each constituency,? the source added.
The preparation of the first 64-member list came a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched the party?s election campaign at a women?s rally in Guwahati.
Tomorrow, Gogoi and Ghatowar will lead a team of ministers and MLAs to the tea belt of Dibrugarh for a series of meetings in the traditional Congress stronghold.
The campaign is starting against a significant backdrop. The All Sonowal-Kachari Youth Council (ASKYC) would observe its central foundation day at a public convention at the Chowkidingee playground in Dibrugarh.
ASKYC president Milon Sonowal today said the chief minister had earlier assured the organisation that the state government was seriously considering the proposal to create an autonomous council for the community. ?However, it will be hard to say if the chief minister would be able to announce anything for the community since the code of conduct has come into force,? he added.
The community had submitted a list of 871 villages spread over seven districts in Upper Assam, for which it has been demanding autonomous councils. The districts are Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Dhemaji and Lakhimpur.
?The government had promised us an interim council but we will not agree to it,? said Raheswar Sonowal, who is the president of the Sonowal-Kachari Autonomous Council Demand Committee.
A delegation of the committee had met Gogoi in Dispur on Thursday. The chief minister had given the assurance that the government would do everything to solve the problems of the community.
According to a census, the population of the community is six lakh, spread over these 871 villages. Dibrugarh has the highest number of villages (361) followed by Tinsukia district, which has 225.