Cong Raps Assam Asssembly Speaker For Withdrawal of Opposition Leader’s Status From Debabrata Saikia

GUWAHATI: The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee on Thursday accused the state Assembly speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami of acting as “a BJP agent” in withdrawing the leader of the opposition status from Congress MLA Debabrata Saikia.

Describing it as “a political stunt” ahead of the Assembly elections, APCC spokesperson Bobeeta Sharma said Goswami appears to have lost the apolitical nature of the chair of the speaker of the house. Goswami is a BJP MLA from Jorhat constituency.

She said the speaker’s statement in the withdrawal of leader of the opposition status from Saikia that the Congress did not have the requisite number (one sixth of the total number of seats in the house) to have a leader of the opposition was not justified in view of the fact that many states in the country still have leaders of the opposition with lesser number of MLAs in the house.

She also pointed out that since the present strength of the Assam Assembly is 119 instead of 126, Saikia still deserves to be the leader of the opposition.

Citing that the Section 2 of the Salary and Allowance of the Leader of the Opposition in Assam Legislative Assembly Act 1978 which states that the leader of the opposition party in the house with the greatest numerical strength is the leader of the opposition, Sharma stated that there is no mention that the number of opposition party members should be one-sixth of the house.

The seasoned Congress woman said although the BJP tried it to be a political stunt ahead of the elections, it has actually revealed the mean political agenda of the party.

Alleging lack of development during the BJP rule in the state, Sharma said the BJP has succeeded only in dividing the people on communal and religious lines.