GUWAHATI: An MLA of ruling BJP in Assam claimed the party’s thousands of Lok Sabha election votes were “spoiled” due to a minister’s style of talking.
Mrinal Saikia, the Khumtai MLA, requested Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to ask the BJP minister, Jayanta Malla Baruah, not to talk about party matters in public.
“Respected HCM @himantabiswa sir, pl tell @jayanta_malla to keep his mouth shut about party affairs. He should realise by now that his style of talking has already spoiled thousands of @bjp4assam votes in this #election2024,” Saikia wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The MLA made the statement in the context of Baruah’s certain remarks against some BJP old guards.
In a veiled attack, Baruah stated what matters the most is one’s dedication to the party – how much time one gives to it.
The statement followed a show-cause notice which the BJP served on senior leader and former MLA, Ashok Sarma for publicly criticising party leadership. The BJP accused him of provoking voters against the party on the polling day.
Earlier, BJP MP Dilip Saikia, who contested the parliamentary election from the Darrang-Udalguri seat, slammed Sarma, accusing him of working against him.
For some time, the BJP in Assam has been affected by a clash between its old and new workers.
Sarma is an old BJP leader while Baruah has a Congress past. Baruah joined the BJP in 2015 when Himanta and several other MLAs, who all were with the Congress, ditched the party to wear saffron.
Sarma was elected to the Assembly in 2016 from the Nalbari seat. In 2021 however, the BJP denied a ticket to him and fielded Baruah instead. He successfully contested.
Assam, which has 14 seats, went to Lok Sabha polls in the first three phases. During elections, the BJP’s four-time former Nagaon MP Rajen Gohain made no bones about expressing his displeasure over the delimitation exercise of last year.
He was livid that the BJP got weakened in Nagaon after the constituency had undergone massive demographic changes as a result of the delimitation exercise. His utterances had not gone down well within the party.