Alleged scam heat could have driven Himanta to BJP's lap: Cong

Assam Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sarma's announcement to join BJP is being seen by Congress central leadership as his response in the wake of the 2010 water supply scam.
"You draw your own conclusions. He was working for Congress till two days back and had worked for the party in the Tiwa autonomous council polls in which the party got absolute majority", a senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, said.
He said the ruling party got absolute majority in the Tiwa autonomous council polls in the two districts of the state, including Nagaon, and had won 15 seats out of 31. BJP could secure just 3.

The leader acknowledged Himanta as a good organiser who played a key role in the last two Assembly polls in the state and suggested that there may have been some compulsions for him to do so.
Assembly polls in Assam are scheduled next year and BJP has been making earnest efforts to widen its base to end the 15-year Congress rule in the state.
Himanta's reported criticism of Rahul Gandhi was also brushed aside by the senior leader who said if it was so why did the former Assam Minister met the Congress Vice President as many as five times.

At its parliamentary party meeting on July 22, BJP had released a booklet - 'Saga of Scams in Congress-ruled States' - in which it termed Sarma as "key suspect" in the alleged Guwahati water supply scam involving the Congress-led state government and American firm Louise Beger International Inc which worked as a consultant.

It alleged that the Tarun Gogoi-led government in Assam had paid Rs 200 crore to Louise Berger as consultancy fees but the firm had allegedly "offered huge sums of money as bribes to the state ministers and officials of the concerned departments."
According to the booklet, Sarma was "the then a very powerful minister of Guwahati Development Department of Assam government under which the Guwahati Water Supply Project was launched."

Once a close associate of Chief Minister Gogoi, Sarma had resigned from his ministry last year following differences.