Bhupen Borah Takes Charge as Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Newly-appointed Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Bora and three working presidents Rana Goswami, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Jakir Hussain Sikdar took charge on Wednesday at a function held at the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra auditorium.

All India Congress Committee and Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh, senior leaders, MPs and MLAs, AICC Secretaries, APCC office bearers, party members and workers from all districts of Assam were present.

The meeting started with felicitation of distinguished guests and speech of outgoing president Ripun Bora , who officially handed over charge to incumbent president Bhupen Bora. Ripun Bora said that Congress had given a tough fight to the BJP in the last Assembly polls and that the difference of votes between the Congress-led Mahajut and BJP-led Mitrajut was not much. The BJP-led Mitrajut got 91 lakh votes while the Congress-led Mahajut secured 88.29 lakh votes. Hence, the difference in percentage of votes was very less - .8 per cent only.

After taking charge, Bhupen Bora said that he would take the party forward with the help of the guidance of seniors and power of youth. He further said that he would give the young party workers ample opportunity to work for the party. "From the time I was named President, till now, I have been taking advice of the party leaders and workers. I have made a roadmap in my mind on how to move forward. Today I appeal to our party workers to carry out their responsibilities with sincerity and integrity and I promise that we, in the Congress, will form government. If every booth president, every ward president, every district president, every secretary and general secretary carry out their responsibilities with integrity then no one will be able to stop us," he said.

Jitendra Singh expressed hope that under the leadership of Bhupen Bora, the Congress would emerge as a stronger party in Assam. He said that although the results of the Assam Assembly polls were not as expected, they were also not bad. He lauded the party workers for working hard and putting in every effort during the polls.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, while addressing the gathering, said that the reasons for the party's defeat in the Assembly polls must be reviewed. He also said that the people had now understood where the BJP-led Assam Government was going wrong. He expressed confidence that the Congress would pose a strong challenge to the BJP. The Congress leaders later paid tribute at the Dr Bhupen Hazarika Samadhi Khetra Memorial from where they went to the Rajiv Bhavan and paid tribute to the former Chief Ministers.

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