'I’m not BJP’s Assam CM candidate, I’m not a politician', Ex-CJI Ranjan Gogoi denies rumors

Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi on Sunday dismissed the speculation that he would be Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate in Assam for next year’s assembly election. In an exclusive interaction with India Today, Ranjan Gogoi, now a nominated Rajya Sabha member, said, "I am not a politician and have no such ambition or intent. Nobody has mentioned any such possibility to me."

Ranjan Gogoi also sought to make it categorical that his acceptance of a Rajya Sabha membership earlier this year is not a step towards formal introduction to politics.

"It is unfortunate that people do not understand the difference between a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha and a nominee of a political party elected to the House. I have consciously chosen to be a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha because it gives me the opportunity to air my views on issues of interest to me while retaining my independence. Does that make me a politician?" Ranjan Gogoi said.

On August 22, former Assam Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi had said that Ranjan Gogoi might well be the chief ministerial candidate for the BJP in Assam in next year's assembly polls.

"I have heard from my sources that Ranjan Gogoi's name is there in the list of the BJP's candidates for the chief minister's post. I suspect he might be projected for the next possible chief ministerial candidate for Assam," Tarun Gogoi told media persons in Guwahati.

"The BJP is happy with Ranjan Gogoi for the Ram Mandir verdict and, as a result, he was nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP after his retirement as the CJI. [Ranjan] Gogoi could have refused to be a Rajya Sabha MP, but his acceptance shows he is interested in active politics," Tarun Gogoi added.

The Assam unit of the BJP has also rubbished Tarun Gogoi's claim, terming it as a "meaningless".

"People utter lot of meaningless stuff when they grow very old, and we would like to put Gogoi's statement in that category. I have met many former CMs, but no one makes such baseless assertions such as Tarun Gogoi. There is not one iota of truth in what he had said," Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said.

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