Sonia Gandhi

Guwahati, Aug. 31: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today returned from Delhi with AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s seal of approval on a 20-member list of legislators and PCC leaders chosen for the chairmanships of public sector undertakings.

An aide of the chief minister said he would announce the appointments in a day or two.

As many as 37 Congress legislators jointly petitioned Gogoi on August 8 for “rehabilitation” as heads of PSUs, if not ministers. However, Chandan Sarkar, who led the group, is not on the list approved by Sonia Gandhi. A party insider said he might be given a berth in the ministry during the next reshuffle.

The 15 legislators set to be appointed as chairpersons of bankrupt PSUs are Madan Kalita, Pani Ram Rabha, Idris Ali, Sarbananda Choudhury, Ajit Singh, Aftabuddin Mullah, Dildar Rezza, Gopinath Das, Rana Goswami, Uttara Kalita, Basanta Das, Bhimananda Tanti, Praneswar Basumatary, Dileswar Tanti and Aklius Tirkey.

The five PCC leaders are Kirip Chaliha, Akon Bora, Joy Kumar Jain, Parul Bora and Kandarpa Das.

A source said some of the other aspirants had begun lobbying with the high command for similar opportunities. “It will not be surprising if one or two of them make the cut at the expense of those already chosen or pressure the leadership into expanding the list.”

According to one school of thought, Sarkar’s exclusion from the list could be a message to other MLAs that the leadership does not appreciate petitions such as the one submitted to the chief minister.

The petition almost triggered a crisis in the ruling party, coming as it did in the wake of the political upheaval in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, which led to the downfall of the Mukut Mithi government.

The chief minister, however, allayed the apprehension of senior AICC leaders about the possibility of a similar coup in Assam.

Gogoi claimed the legislators who petitioned him indicated they were behind him rather than challenging his authority. The topic is likely to be discussed again during the proposed visit by the AICC observer for Assam, Mohsina Kidwai, on September 4.

The decision to appoint legislators and Congress leaders as chairpersons of PSUs is the opposite of what senior bureaucrat S.K. Tewari recommended in a status report on state-level public enterprises.

Attributing the financial condition of PSUs to lack of professional management, Tewari said chairpersons of PSUs were being appointed not on the basis of professional expertise but on political considerations.

The state has 49 PSUs, which have accumulated losses to the tune of over Rs 4,000 crore. The committee on fiscal reforms, headed by former chief secretary H.N. Das, recommended to the Gogoi government that the chairman-cum-managing director of a PSU should be a professional, selected by the Public Enterprise Selection Board. The government accepted the report in principle.