GUWAHATI: A lot of factors will stand in the way of sitting MLAs of major political parties in Assam when they seek tickets to contest the Assembly elections due early next year.
For the ruling BJP, it is mainly about performance and popularity.
For opposition parties Congress and the minority-based All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a possible alliance between the two and their resultant seat-sharing arrangement could hurt some MLAs.
BJP stalwart and the state’s Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made it clear that all sitting MLAs of the party will not get tickets.
“The BJP doesn’t look at anyone’s face. The assessment ahead of the selection of candidates is done through several processes. So, it is obvious that all of them (sitting MLAs) are unlikely to get tickets,” Sarma had told journalists on Monday.
He echoed the remarks of BJP’s Assam unit chief Ranjit Dass.
A few months ago, Dass had stirred a hornet’s nest by saying that the BJP would not field its “incompetent” MLAs and that its leaders would visit the constituencies to assess the performances of MLAs.
The Hojai MLA Shiladitya Deb had insisted that the BJP should also assess the performances of Ministers and replace those, who failed to live up to party and people’s expectations, with suitable MLAs.
“It’s good that those who haven’t performed well will not get tickets. When the party will assess the performances of MLAs, I feel it should also evaluate the performances of Ministers. The performances of the MLAs largely depend on the work done by the Ministers. If the Ministers do not work well, it is natural that my performance won’t be up to the mark,” Deb had sought to make a point then.
Meanwhile, some MLAs of Congress and AIUDF are piqued by the coming together of the two parties although it has not been officially announced yet. They represent constituencies where the Muslims are in a large majority who voted for the two parties for years. They fear the seat-sharing arrangement could lead to denial of tickets to them.