Tarun Gogoi was on Sunday administered the oath of office as chief minister of Assam by Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajai Singh at Raj Bhavan in the presence of a distinguished gathering that included two Union ministers, all senior civil and police officials, legislators and former chief ministers.
Till the Assam election results were out, there were apprehensions among a section of senior Congress leaders that Gogoi's persistent stand not to bow down or appease leaders from the influential religious minority groups would cost the party dear in the polls.
But Gogoi has proved his detractors and critics wrong.
He has helped the Congress retain power with 53 legislators of its own and with support from 12 MLAs of the Bodo People's Progressive Front (H), an ally carefully chosen by Gogoi.
He showed that he had the guts to ignore the influential minority Assam United Democratic Front led by Badaruddin Ajmal, which won 10 seats in the debut election.
The AUDF leader had been maintaining that the party had nothing against the Congress but it was opposed to Gogoi for his 'anti-minority' stand and policies.
In April, 2005, the then All India Jamital Ulema-e-Hind president Maulana Asad Madani criticised the Congress government in Assam for doing not much for religious minorities' welfare and threatened to topple the government within six months in case the government failed to bring about radical change in its policies for welfare of minorities.
Gogoi refused to be cowed down by the threat and chose to hit back saying that the Congress did not come to power because of the support of any particular community and it had a responsibility towards all the communities.
He chose to stay away from minority appeasement and the results have vindicated his stand.
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