Dev faces challenge from party members

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Santosh faces challenge from party members

From our Staff Reporter
SILCHAR, Feb 2: Sontosh Mohan Dev is facing competition from within the party itself for the first time almost in the last three decades as State Minister Dinesh Prasad Goala and lower rank APCC spokesman Pradip Dutta Roy are also seeking nomination along with Dev for the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. Both Goala and Dutta Roy have underlined that whoever gets the party ticket will fight the election unitedly. But in reality the picture seems to be different as both Goala and Dutta Roy have, in recent times, voiced resentment against the leadership of Dev. It was also reported that they had even gone to the extent of questioning Dev’s credit for the development of the constituency.

Goala in a recent press statement has indirectly admitted that the position of Congress in Silchar LS seat is not very encouraging and the popularity graph of Union Minister Dev seems to be descending. Dutta also lacks grassroot level acceptance as a public figure and virtually a nonentity in the District Congress Committee has recently convened a press meet in a posh hotel to counter the allegation against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi raised by District Congress. He presented a comparative statement to justify that the state government had, in no way, treated Silchar step-motherly.

Dutta Roy, an advocate by profession, has obliquely maintained that it was the failure of Dev that the constituency had to suffer as far as infrastructure is concerned.

Goala on the other hand, clearly justified his application for nomination as he pointed out his two decades of successful politics in state level and therefore has every right to look forward to it. Further, Goala, the undisputed leader of the tea tribes in entire Barak Valley, argues that the tea community should have their representative in Delhi after supporting the Congress for decades.

The question now is, why then Goala and Dutta Roy jumped into the race? A source in the Congress indicates that the main answer to this question is actually a wider question — after Dev, who? Dev for the last couple of years has first brought his wife Bithika Dev into electoral politics. Bithika first became the Chairperson of Silchar Municipality Board, now she is the MLA of Silchar. Next comes Dev’s daughter, Susmita, a barrister. Susmita is currently practising in Supreme Court and is now looking after her father’s MP area fund. A good section of the Congress is confident that Susmita will get the baton from her father. This obviously has frightened other aspirants, and thus Goala and Dutta Roy have taken the plunge, well in advance. source: sentinel assam