I am not BJP’s Assam CM candidate: Ranjan Gogoi

Dispur, Aug 23: Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has rubbished the speculation that he would be Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate in Assam for next year's assembly election.

"I am not a politician and have no such ambition or intent. Nobody has mentioned any such possibility to me," Gogoi in In an exclusive interaction with India Today.

Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi had earlier claimed 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.

Congress is working on to form a 'Grand Alliance' of non-BJP parties, including the AIUDF, Left and AGM, to oust the ruling party in the assembly elections and kept doors open for any new parties.

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The election to the 126-member Assam Assembly in 2016 had given a fractured mandate and no party got the absolute majority in the current House. The ruling BJP is in the government with support from the AGP and BPF along with one Independent MLA.

Gogoi headed a five-judge bench that gave the verdict on the sensitive Ayodhya land dispute on November 9 last year.

He also headed the benches that ruled on matters like entry of women in Sabarimala temple and Rafale fighter jet deal.

Ranjan Gogoi, the first person from northeast to reach the top of judiciary was nominated to the Rajya Sabha.