MORIGAON, March 22 - A rift in the ruling BJP in Morigaon has widened after MLA Rama Kanta Dewri announced that he was forming a new political party, Jatiya Oikya Mancha (JOM), ahead of the Panchayat election in the state.
Dewri, the then President of the Tiwa Jatiya Oikya Mancha, a local political party, was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly on a BJP ticket in the 2016 elections.
The bone of contention between the BJP state leadership and Dewri was that the Morigaon MLA wanted to contest the Panchayat election in alliance with regional political parties like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Morigaon district, while the BJP wanted to fight the polls alone.
Dewri apprised Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state BJP President Ranjit Das about his wish a month ago. On getting no appropriate response, the Morigaon MLA convened a meeting on March 20 at Baligaon in Rangadoria.
At that meeting, Dewri announced that he was forming a political party JOM, which will contest the Panchayat poll in alliance with the AGP. He also declared that the BJP will lose the Panchayat election if it contests alone.
Reacting to Dewri�s political move, three Mandal committees of the Morigaon unit of the BJP sent a memorandum Ranjit Das seeking disciplinary action against the MLA.
BJP workers of Morigaon are now divided into two factions � one led by Dewri, and the other led by Lok Sabha MP Rajen Gohain.
