india

Updated: Jun 16, 2019 21:49 IST

The Assam unit of the Congress has suspended former minister and veteran leader from Barak Valley Gautam Roy and general secretary Romen Borthakur for anti-party activities.

“Roy was distributing sweets after the BJP candidate won from Karimganj Lok Sabha seat while Borthakur had given interviews against Ripun Bora, president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee,” Ranjan Bora, General Secretary, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee said giving out details of the decision after the party’s executive meeting on Saturday.

The Congress could win only three of the total 14 seats in the state in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said on Sunday that the Congress needs to work like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to achieve its goal of ‘Mission 80’ --the number of seats the party hopes to win in the 2021 assembly polls--as decided at the executive meeting.

“It is a failure for all of us,” said Tarun Gogoi. “I have no problem in accepting that we became a bit complacent after 15 years of rule in the state,” said Gogoi, the three time former chief minister.

Calling for the party to reinvent its strategy to reach out to the people, Gogoi said it should work like the RSS if it wants to win 80 seats in the 2021 Assembly polls.

“We have to work hard,” he said. “We have to adopt the same strategy as the RSS,” Gogoi said. “When I talk about strategy, I mean the way RSS works in terms of contact with the people, the Jan Sampark,” the veteran Congress leader said.

The BJP, which came to power in the state for the first time in 2016 in an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad and other regional outfits, won nine Lok Sabha seats this time. The party has set a target of winning 100 out of the 126 assembly seats in 2021.