Activists of the Asomiya Yuva Mancha don masks of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in Guwahati on Saturday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Sept. 10: The Opposition AGP and BJP today linked the ceding of Assam land to Bangladesh with chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s “personal” ambition of becoming the vice-president of India.

Today, while AASU activists staged an hourlong national highway blockade across the state and the Asomiya Yuva Mancha took out a procession highlighting Gogoi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “love” for Bangladesh, the Opposition parties attributed the deal to Gogoi eyeing the vice-president’s chair.

Even former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, who posed a slew of uncomfortable questions to corner the chief minister on the deal, said the “personal ambition” angle was quite apparent from the manner in which Gogoi went out of the way to “please” Delhi.

There are hushed discussions in the corridors of powers here about the Congress high command contemplating Gogoi’s nomination for the vice-president’s post as his “retirement package”. Political parties, however, are not that circumspect.

AGP general secretary Atul Bora today said Gogoi was toeing the Delhi line as he was desperately trying to become the vice-president of India.

“As Gogoi is eyeing the post of vice-president, he agreed to the land swap deal and handed over Assam land in Karimganj and Dhubri to Bangladesh. We suspect that Gogoi did it for his personal interests. Otherwise, why did he not discuss the issue with local organisations, political parties and other civil society groups before handing over the land to Bangladesh?” Bora asked.

BJP spokesperson Santanu Bharali said Gogoi’s “overriding” personal ambition to become the vice-president seemed to have influenced the land deal.

“Or else he could have adopted a tough stand like his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee. It is very unfortunate. He had no right to take such a decision without taking the Assembly into confidence,” Bharali said.

However, two senior ministers in the cabinet — Pradyut Bordoloi and Himanta Biswa Sarma — told The Telegraph that the issue was discussed at cabinet meetings.

A Congress insider said: “There is nothing official as yet about the vice-president’s post, but it very unlikely that Gogoi will get another term as chief minister in 2016 given his advancing age and health condition. We have also heard that he had paid a courtesy call to the vice-president before his Europe visit in August. The vice-president’s post is being seen as a fitting reward for his contributions to the party and the nation.”

Vice-president M. Hamid Ansari, if he does not get an extension, will retire next August.

Mahanta, while urging people to come out and join the protests against the land deal, said Gogoi had no right to blame him or the AGP for “compromising” the territorial integrity of Assam and asked him to make public the draft land deal to clear the air.

He also wanted to know why Gogoi had “hidden” the report of the Karimganj administration about the massive deviation of fencing along the international border by the National Buildings Construction Corporation and National Projects Construction Corporation.

The main opposition party — All India United Democratic Front — also announced that it would to resort to a democratic movement against the deal.

AIUDF media cell secretary Haidor Hussain Bora said a 15-member team, headed by the party chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, would leave for Baroibari tomorrow to take stock of the situation. “Ajmal will visit the border at Baroibari on Monday and exchange views with the people,” Bora added.