GUWAHATI: The BJP’s “face” in the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, will not be in the Lok Sabha poll fray as the party’s central leadership wants him to continue to work towards making the party stronger in the region.
BJP president Amit Shah on Friday cited the reasons why the party’s central leadership is averse to Sarma contesting the polls.
“The BJP’s Assam election committee and the workers of the party had unanimously recommended the name of Himanta Biswa Sarma as a candidate for the Lok Sabha elections. However, in order to ensure that he can continue to serve as the chairman of (non-Congress) North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) for the development of the Northeast and for better coordination between the party and the government, the BJP’s central leadership decided that he remains in Assam and keeps fulfilling his responsibilities as a minister and the NEDA chairman to strengthen the party further in Assam and the Northeast,” Shah tweeted.
Sarma accepted the decision. He tweeted, “I am grateful that our party president Amit Shah Ji has reposed faith and trust in me. I consider this as a big recognition and will not forget this for the rest of my life. I accept his decision.”
The BJP’s state leadership had recommended the name of Sarma for the prestigious Tezpur seat. When sitting MP Ram Prasad Sarmah, also of the BJP, got a whiff of it, he sought to resign but it was not accepted by the party. With Sarma out of poll fray, the chances of the sitting MP getting the ticket have now brightened. Tezpur is considered as the safest constituency for the BJP.
3 sittings MPs excluded from list
Three Assam MPs fell out of the BJP’s favour, as the party announced its first list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections. BJP will contest 10 of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats following its pre-poll alliance with regional forces Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). The BJP’s first list featured names of candidates for 8 seats.
The candidates fielded are Queen Ojha (Guwahati), Kripanath Malla (Karimganj), Rajdeep Roy (Silchar), Harensingh Bey (Diphu), Dilip Saikia (Mangaldoi), Tapan Gogoi (Jorhat), Rameswar Teli (Dibrugarh) and Pradan Baruah (Lakhimpur). Teli and Baruah are sitting MPs. The three MPs snubbed are Bijoya Chakraborty (Guwahati), Kamakhya Prasad Tassa (Jorhat) and Ramen Deka (Mangaldoi).
Age seems to have gone against 79-year-old Chakraborty, the sitting MP from Guwahati. According to BJP insiders, Tassa was not fielded as he had allegedly remained aloof from voters in the past five years. Party leaders wanted an Ahom face in Jorhat, which Tassa represents.