JING DIMASA BLOG

Monday, July 4, 2011

Haflongbar loses Dima Hasao chair - Congress begins internal crackdown


Guwahati/Nagaon, July 2: The ruling Congress has quietly launched an internal crackdown on leaders and members who indulged in anti-party activities during the recently concluded Assembly elections.
Though the party managed to register a thumping victory and wrangled 78 out of the 126 Assembly seats, some leaders like the Dima Hasao DCC president, Samarjeet Haflongbar, openly pursued a personal agenda at the cost of party interests.
Haflongbar has become the first casualty of the crackdown and has been replaced by Nalendra Karigapsa, a leader allegedly close to former president of the DCC G.C Langthasa, a PCC vice-president and six-time MLA from Haflong. The development has, allegedly, also strengthened Langthasa’s grip on the DCC.
Karigapsa was with the BJP before joining the Congress.
Though an Assam PCC release issued last evening said state unit president Bhubaneswar Kalita had reconstituted the Dima Hasao DCC by replacing Haflongbar with Karigapsa on June 27 in the “greater interest” of the organisation in the district, sources said the change of guard was due because of mounting complaints against Haflongbar from within the party.
Assam PCC sources in Guwahati said the common complaints were that he had worked against Langthasa in the elections; he spent more time in Guwahati than in the district and had not taken measures to improve the health of the party.
Rana Khan, PCC secretary in-charge of the district, said Karigapsa had been appointed as the interim president and would be under observation. “We will watch his performance before deciding on his continuance or replacement,” he said.
The development comes ahead of the August 18 byelections to one of the 28 constituencies of the district autonomous council, which is now headed by the Congress.
Haflongbar, however, has moved the Assam PCC president seeking a review of the decision.
He said he had become a victim of a conspiracy hatched by a section of his party workers with vested interests. “I have not received the order replacing me till now. Had I been asked to resign, I might have done that willingly, as the party’s interest is above all for me,” he said.
The senior politician, who represented Haflong Assembly constituency as ASDC legislator from 1996 to 2001, joined the Congress in 2007.
He was appointed as the district unit chief in 2008.
Haflongbar was one of the two Congress candidates elected to the district autonomous council election in 2007.
After the arrest of chief executive member Mohit Hojai, Haflongbar took over as the in-charge CEM till Devajeet Thausan replaced him a year later.
PCC sources said the four-day wait by the leadership before making the decision public showed it did not want to attract “undue” attention. “It was quiet all this while because it wanted to test the reactions of district party leaders who supported the move. We wanted things to settle down before the formal announcement was made,” one of them said.

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