Silchar: Minister Pijush Hazarika on Saturday witnessed an unpleasant incident in Katigorah when the supporters of MLA Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha and an anti group of the ruling party engaged themselves in fisticuffs. The situation turned out to be so volatile that the personal security of Purkayastha, the North Karimganj Congress MLA virtually ‘rescued’ him to his car and he finally left the scene hurriedly. The entire episode took place in front of the Water Resources Minister Hazarika who visited the flood ravaged Natanpur area in Katigorah’s Indo Bangla border. Significantly it was Purkayastha who literally persuaded the Water Resources Minister to visit the area which had a long history of being badly affected during the rainy season due to non functioning of two sluice gates. Hazarika, who wrapped up his two days Barak Valley trip on Saturday had earlier visited various flood-affected areas of the three districts. He assured that all the dykes would be repaired with geotube technology very soon.
Meanwhile the inner politics of the BJP in Katigorah sparked up in recent times following Purkayastha’s sudden activities in the constituency. Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha, the three times Congress MLA from the North Karimganj seat had openly declared his allegiance and active support to the Himanta Biswa Sarma’s BJP government. In the recent Lok Sabha election Purkayastha openly worked for the BJP candidate.
However, he had not yet officially resigned from the party he represents in the Assembly. Further, eyeing the Katigorah seat for the next Assembly election, Purkayastha had stepped up his activities in this constituency in recent times. This had created furore among the veteran BJP leaders.
Former local MLA Amarchand Jain had openly questioned Purkayastha’s credential as a BJP member and made it clear that Katigorah BJP would never tolerate any ‘outsider’ here like the previous years. On the other hand, a group of supporters of Purkayastha counter argued that none of the local BJP leaders had ever raised various serious issues of the constituency, but Kamalakha had taken up the matters directly with the Chief Minister.
In this backdrop, the Saturday episode in front of Pijush Hazarika would definitely add a new turn in the race for next Assembly election.
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