DIBRUGARH, June 2 - The general public was witness to spontaneous celebration in different parts of the district here with noisy cheers and bursting of fire crackers after Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli was inducted as one of the members in the Union Council of Ministers.
The celebrations erupted immediately after Teli was sworn in as one of the ministers during the swearing-in ceremony at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
The district party office of the BJP located at Amollapatty here attracted a huge crowd after party leaders distributed sweets among the public amid loud music and Bihu dance performances. The celebration also involved bursting of fire crackers. Among the revellers were local MLA Prasanta Phukan, BJP�s district general secretary Ujjal Kashyap and vice presidents Ranjit Sharma, Padma Gogoi and Sonu Roy.
A similar celebration was also organised at the residence of the Dibrugarh MP in Duliajan.
For Rameswar Teli, winning a ministerial berth is perhaps a dream fulfilled as on several earlier occasions he had expressed his desire to take up such a responsibility so that he got the opportunity to serve the community in a big way.
Bhuneswar Teli, the younger brother of Rameswar Teli said that their family members never expected that someone from among them could ever reach such a great height.
�How could anyone think of such a turnaround in life when you are compelled to sell dhekia (fern), yam and arecanuts for a living. Our father toiled daily under a contractor. He died when we were in school. Dada (brother) and I had to support our mother to run the house and manage our expenses. He (Rameswar) cleared his matriculation, but could not continue further due to financial constraints although he had joined Naharkatia College,� said Bhuneswar Teli.
Rameswar Teli is the eldest among the four siblings of Budhu Teli and Dukola Teli of Tipling Puranaghat near Duliajan OIL town. Bhuneswar Teli is the second sibling followed by sisters � Beena Teli and late Bhanu Teli. Rameswar Teli did his primary schooling in Tipling LP School and later joined Tipling High School in Puranaghat. He passed his matriculation in 1989. After he joined Naharkatia College, he became an active worker of Assam Tea Tribes Students� Association (ATTSA). He was instrumental in giving birth to the Duliajan unit of ATTSA. He later rose to becoming the general secretary of ATTSA.
He resigned from ATTSA to join politics in 1999. He contested as a BJP candidate from Duliajan LAC in 2001 and succeeded in snatching the seat from the Congress. He retained the seat again in 2006, but lost to Congress in 2011. In 2014, he contested as the BJP�s Lok Sabha candidate from Dibrugarh and ousted Congress stalwart Paban Singh Ghatowar. He won again this time with a whopping margin of nearly four lakh votes, being the highest margin of triumph in the region. The down to earth, humble Teli, however, continues to live with his mother and other family members in a bamboo house under a tin roof in Tipling.
The obviously excited BJP here is due to accord a huge reception to the newly-inducted Minister on his arrival.
�We are planning to welcome him from the airport and then subsequently hold a rally in a prominent place where we could felicitate him,� said Ujjal Kashyap, general secretary of the BJP�s Dibrugarh district committee.
