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Day after Congress rejig in Northeast, party tweaks announcement
On Monday the Congress had announced that Gaurav Gogoi will be the party’s in-charge of Tripura and Manipur. A day later he was given Sikkim while incumbent Luizinho Faleiro will continue to be in charge of Tripura.
A day after the Congress announced that Kaliabor MP Gaurav Gogoi will be given the additional responsibilities of Tripura and Manipur, the party on Tuesday amended the announcement saying Gogoi will now be the in-charge of Sikkim instead of Tripura.
“In partial modification of the press release issued yesterday, the Hon’ble Congress President has appointed Shri Gaurav Gogoi, M.P. as in charge of Sikkim and Manipur along with his current responsibilities as in charge of West Bengal and A&N Islands. Shri Luizinho Faleiro will continue as General Secretary in charge of Tripura and the rest of the North eastern states,” read a release issued by the Congress, less than 24 hours after the rejig in appointments were announced.
A late night announcement on Monday had said that while Faleiro will continue as in-charge of other Northeastern states, Gogoi will be the in-charge of Tripura and Manipur.
The charge of Tripura has been a bone of contention between a section of the state leadership and Northeast in-charge Luizinho Falerio. Former Tripura president Pradyot Kishore Deb Barman went public with his complaint against Falerio, whom he accused of corruption and of asking him to withdraw a petition Deb Barman had filed in the Supreme Court to update the National Register of Citizens in Tripura. Deb Barman eventually quit the party in protest in September.
Sikkim hasn’t had an in-charge since Deb Barman’s resignation as he was assigned the state ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
With the amended rejig, among the eight states in the Northeast, Harish Rawat is the general secretary in-charge of Assam, Faleiro is the general secretary in-charge of the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura, and Gaurav Gogoi is the in-charge of Manipur and Sikkim.
Monday’s announcement to divest Falerio of the responsibility of Tripura was seen largely as the Congress high command paying heed to the complaints from Tripura. Both Gogoi and Deb Barman exchanged pleasantries on Twitter after the announcement.
Among the Northeastern states, Assam is scheduled to have assembly elections in 2021 followed by Manipur in 2022.
The BJP-le government in Manipur had recently been rocked by power struggle between Chief Minister N Biren Singh and state minister Th Biswajit Singh. The BJP’s central leadership sorted out the matter last week after both leaders landed in Delhi.
