Gogoi defends Congress selection

Guwahati, Mar 16 (UNI) Asom Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today defended the Congress selection of candidates saying that lack of rebellion within the party rank and file only reconfirm his belief that the best candidates have been selected.

'' Never before so much consultations had been done for every seat. I have never seen it in my political career. The tribes, tribals and minorities, all got represented and the sole criteria of selection was the chance of winning probability,'' he said.

Addressing a news conference here, the Chief Minister who would file nomination papers tomorrow at Jorhat, said his party would retain all the seats which it had at the moment. The Congress has 71 seats in the present assembly.

Mr Gogoi, however, had to pull out all resource to defend the selection of Rahul Roy, son of Asom Minister Gautam Roy. Rahul Roy was accused of conspiring the murder of BJP leader Pratul Deb.

'' There is no case filed against him. CBI is carrying out the investigation, but his involvement is not proved. So, you cannot deny a person who has not been proved guilty,'' he said asserting that selection of Roy was based on the sole criteria of ''winning probability''.

Mr Gogoi exuded confidence of wining this time also because of 'disintegration of opposition.' He said, '' Even before the poll, the United Democratic Front (UDF) is split. The AGP is not sure where to go and they are actually in doldrums.'' According to him AGP is moving from extreme right to extreme left. ''Once they used to be with the BJP and now they are with left. There is nothing to surprise as the Asom agitation was masterminded by the RSS and BJP only,'' he said.

Regarding promotion of family members into politics, he said all the candidates have come on their own strength with considerable experience. The Congress has nominated wives of current four MPs or MLAs.

Asked whether he would be promoting his own family members, he said, ''till now I have found no such indication in my family. If they wish I will have no problem. My son is in a NGO. It is up to him,'' he said.

He admitted that his greatest success would be if he could change the mindset of Asomiya people for government jobs. At the same time he said his biggest failure was not being able to minimize corruption. ''I could not bring it down to the level which I wanted.

I know I cannot eliminate it, but I wished to lower it,'' he said.

He informed that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi beside a host of other senior leaders would be coming within the next few weeks for campaigning.

UNI MT KK AB 1238