GUWAHATI:Congress deputy chief Rahul Gandhi is understood to have asked the party’s Assam unit leaders to keep a hawk’s eye on top bureaucrats of the state over their alleged nexus with the BJP and the RSS.
The bureaucrats include Chief Secretary V K Pipersenia, DGP Khagen Sarma and Additional Chief Secretary M G V K Bhanu, who is also Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister.
The names of these three bureaucrats purportedly came up for discussion during Rahul’s meeting with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief Anjan Dutta and former minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The Congress, which has been in power in Assam since 2001, had lost considerable ground in the state for the last two years following the BJP’s emergence as a powerhouse.
And with the Assembly elections due early next year, a number of bureaucrats in the state are said to be hobnobbing with the BJP and the RSS.
As taking stern action against them could backfire on the Congress, sources said the Congress scion had advised the party brass to keep tabs on the trio.
Rahul is said to have also advised that some other bureaucrats, who are allegedly hobnobbing with the BJP, be posted to places of lesser importance, which are not politically sensitive.
The Congress vice-president has advised the party’s state leadership to give equal weightage to Sarma, who had earlier raised the banner of revolt against Gogoi.
Known for his political acumen, Sarma was once the most trusted lieutenant of Gogoi before the two fell out.
The differences between Sarma and Chief Minister Gogoi cropped up within months after Gogoi’s son Gaurav joined the Congress party.
Gaurav is now a Lok Sabha MP from Kaliabor.
Besides, the sources revealed that Rahul had counselled the state unit leaders to give a leading role to Sarma in the run-up to the polls.
In fact, Sarma has been virtually sidelined in the party since his abortive bid to unseat Gogoi.