GUWAHATI: Assam minister and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convener, Himanta Biswa Sarma has assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi of winning at least “19 out of 25 seats from the Northeast” in the Lok Sabha polls next year.
In a tweet on Saturday evening, Sarma thanked the Prime Minister by saying, “Thank you so much Sir. We the NEDA family would like to assure you once again that we will contribute at least 19/25 seats from north east towards over all NDA tally in 2019.”
It may be noted that BJP had opened its account in Mizoram, after over two decades of electoral participation, by winning a seat in the recently concluded Assembly elections in the state. The Zoramthanga-led Mizoram Cabinet was sworn in on Saturday.
The Mizo National Front, which bagged 26 seats out of 40 to oust the Congress from power after 10 years, is a constituent of NEDA, an alliance of non-Congress parties. Currently, none of the eight states have Congress at the helm.
Prime Minister Modi had in a tweet on Saturday, said, “Over the last few years, the BJP and the NDA family have become the preferred choice of the Northeast. We consider it our privilege that we have the honour of fulfilling the aspirations of the Northeast and taking the region to new heights of progress.”
Sarma had recently claimed success in the “political experiment” of making Northeast “Congress-free” and bringing all the eight states of the region under NEDA.
“This is the first time after the country’s Independence that all eight states of the Northeast are under NEDA. Therefore, the political experiment has been a success and this comes after two and half years of mutual cooperation and support among BJP and the NEDA constituents,” Sarma told the media.
Asked about the panchayat polls, he said BJP’s “good show” was on expected lines but the party has to work harder for making itself count in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
“The performance of the party in the panchayat elections was expected. This is certainly good news for BJP before the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. However, if we have to win 10 seats from Assam in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, we have to work even harder in the next three months,” Sarma said.
