New Assam Congress chief vows to eliminate dissidence

Guwahati: Newly appointed Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Anjan Dutta today said he will meet and interact with workers at all levels to strengthen the party by eliminating any dissidence. Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Dutta said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi would attend a party workers’ rally in the state capital on 4 January next year. “I have prepared a plan and programme till March 2015. I will meet all block, district and state level party workers to find out what are the issues,” he said.[caption id=“attachment_1836585” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Cleaning Congress. AFP[/caption] Dutta, who is a former state transport minister, said he would review performance of office-bearers of all committees and the election for the post of the state committee would be held in May next year. “There is no dissidence at this moment. We heard about dissidence, I will surely address it,” he said. Dutta, however, accepted that many Congress workers left or became inactive in the party due to frustration and he has invited all of them to return. “We also need to increase coordination between the party and the government. And for this, we will organise training sessions for all party workers, including Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, in the coming days,” he said. Dutta also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for reversal of some of the poll promises made in Assam. “Congress is poor in marketing. Modi sold some beautiful packets, but they were full of duplicate goods. Congress makes only true package,” he added. Earlier this month Congress had appointed Dutta as Assam PCC chief, who was quizzed by CBI in the Saradha scam probe, replacing Bhubaneswar Kalita whose tenure would have ended in March after holding the post for ten years. The residence of Dutta, a loyalist of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, was searched by CBI on August 28 after his alleged business dealings with Saradha promoter Sudipta Sen came under the scanner as he used to publish material for the beleaguered group. PTI