Guwahati, July 15: Congress is anxiously watching party MP from Assam, A F Golam Osmani, as the veteran minority leader seems likely to desert the party camp when the UPA faces a trust vote in Parliament next week.

This could happen as the party had already signalled that Osmani, elected from Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency, is unlikely to be nominated in the next elections.

Osmani, who has been openly speaking against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for the past few years, was sent a signal of denial when Gogoi and his most powerful minister Himanta Biswa Sharma recently introduced Pervez Ali Ahmed, son of former president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, as the Congress party’s prospective nominee for Barpeta in the next elections.

Ahmed, a physician, has already addressed a series of public meetings with health minister Sharma in Barpeta over the past few weeks, during which the latter had even appealed to the people to elect Ahmed in the next elections.

Barpeta, incidentally, is the constituency from where Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed was elected to Lok Sabha twice, in 1967 and 1971, before he was made president by Indira Gandhi in 1974. Though Osmani was not available for comments, Gogoi on Tuesday said he was sure that Osmani would vote in favour of the UPA trust motion.