Assam Assembly elections: BJP sounds poll bugle in Barak Valley

GUWAHATI:

The ruling BJP, on Monday, kick-started the party’s Assam Assembly election campaign from Silchar with a pledge to win over 100 seats in the polls, including at least 10 seats in Barak Valley.

Addressing the “Vijay Sankalpa Sanmelan” rally in Silchar, BJP national president Jagat Prakash Nadda reiterated the party’s aim to win 100 plus seats out of the 126 seats in the Assembly elections.

He also thanked the people of Assam and party leaders for maintaining the party’s election-winning tempo since the saffron party took over the reins from the Congress in 2016.

“I congratulate the people of Assam and leaders for making the party strong in the state. Looking back, we are happy to say that since our party formed government, BJP has won all elections in the state, be it the Lok Sabha elections, panchayat elections, Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections or the Tiwa Autonomous Council elections. This is no ordinary feat,” Nadda said.

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The Assam Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in April-May this year.

“The good thing is that the same scene is prevailing in other parts of the country, including Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka and Northeast, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, where BJP has prevailed in elections,” he said.

The BJP national president also talked about the party’s progress in the northeast, including Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, where the party heads the government.

On Assam, where pressure groups and parties are up in arms against BJP in the wake of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Nadda said that the saffron party had taken the onus on itself to protect the state’s culture, language and identity.

“BJP has preserved and given importance to Assam’s culture and language. In fact, during the Assam Agitation, our leader Atal Behari Vajpayee had raised his voice for the state,” he said.

The BJP leader referred to the Bodo agitation, recounting that over 4,000 lives have been lost since then.

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“But the signing of the Bodo peace accord under the leadership of the BJP governments at the Centre and state has ushered in peace in Bodoland Territorial Region,” he said.

Nadda also touched upon the solution to the rehabilitation of displaced Bru families in Tripura after a historic agreement.

The BJP leader further praised Assam community surveillance to reduce COVID mortality rates to 0.47 per cent at present.

He also referred to women empowerment schemes by the Centre in Assam, be it making the state “open defecation free” with 25 lakh toilets set up in the state or the money deposited in the accounts of underprivileged women.

“The state must focus on promoting bamboo, tea, jute and the oil industry,” he added.

The BJP national president is on a two-day tour of Assam from Monday.

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Earlier on Monday afternoon, Nadda was accorded a warm welcome at Silchar airport by thousands of party members and supporters with cultural troupes performing a traditional dance.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also kick-started his Lok Sabha election campaign from Assam in 2019 by taking part in a public rally in Silchar.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that BJP has delivered its 2016 poll promises to bring all-round development in the state.

“The BJP government in the past four and a half years has ensured development and people have felt secure. Now we have to take a pledge for a united effort and hard work to establish Assam as a formidable state in the country,” Sonowal said.

Appealing to the people of Barak Valley to help BJP win all the 15 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections, Sonowal urged party workers to go door to door and share the outstanding work of the party in the past four and a half years.

(Edited by Andre Kongri)

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