Congress leader Debabrata Saikia on January 11th, 2020 asked Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and form a new government with his party’s support.

The statement came after the Union Home Ministry issued a notification stating that the provisions of the Act will come into force from January 10th, 2020. However, the Centre is yet to frame rules for the Act.

“In view of the current situation in Assam, Sonowal should leave the BJP and come out with just 30 of his MLAs. We will support him to form a new government and he will be made the Chief Minister again,” said Saikia, the leader of Opposition in Assam Assembly, talking to reporters in Guwahati.

He added, “Sonowal is facing the wrath for supporting the CAA. The MLAs and Ministers who love Assam must quit the BJP and stand with the people of Assam.”

Sonowal has become the main target of the protests against the CAA in the state. Once hailed as the ‘Jatir Nayak’ (hero of the community), Sonowal today is called the “betrayer of the Assamese people”.

The Chief Minister, on the other hand, blamed the Congress and Left bodies of spreading rumours against the CAA. Sonowal said that Assam will always remain for the Assamese and that the Assam government never took any step which was detrimental to the interest of the people of the state.

After the Rajya Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on December 11th, 2019, massive protests erupted in the state. Several vehicles and other public properties have been either set ablaze or ransacked by the anti-CAA protesters.

Four people have been killed in police firing, while an oil tanker driver was charred to death when his vehicle was set on fire in Orang.

Photo credit: /SarbanandaSonowal