In a big blow to Congress, the Assembly Speaker on Tuesday withdrew the recognition of its legislature party leader Saikia as the Leader of Opposition. The Congress has accused Assam Assembly Speaker Hitendra Nath Goswami of acting as a BJP agent for withdrawing the recognition of its MLA Debabrata Saikia as the Leader of Opposition.

In a statement on Thursday Congress media cell chairperson Bobbeeta Sharma said that the Speaker's decision was a clear political motive just ahead of the state assembly elections. Sarma said, “The Speaker of the assembly is acting as a BJP agent rather than the speaker of the august house,” Sarma said. She said that many states in India, have opposition leaders despite the opposition parties having less than one-sixth strength of the total membership of the assembly. 

Last week, Former Assam PWD Minister and Congress MLA from Golaghat Ajanta Neog and party’s Lakhipur constituency legislator Rajdeep Gowala joined the saffron party. After the resignation of two Congress MLAs recently, the strength of the Congress in the house has come down to 20, one less than the required number in the 126-member Assembly.

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