From Our Correspondent
GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will set off the BJP’s campaign for Lok Sabha election next year in Assam addressing a public rally at Silchar on January 4 next year.
Assam BJP president Ranjit Dass on Monday informed that the saffron party would strive to win winning at least 11 out of the total 14 seats in Assam in the Lok Sabha polls.
“The central leadership of the party has chalked out the first phase of the Prime Minister’s poll campaign for Lok Sabha election. As per the plan, Assam has only one rally of the Prime Minister and that will be held at Silchar,” Dass told media here.
After the recent saffron surge in the northeast, particularly after winning Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP had launched a ‘Mission 21’ for northeast, which is winning at least 21 seats out of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats in the eight northeastern states.
Asked about the party’s preparation for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the state BJP president further said that the party has so far appointed over 1.80 lakh ‘pristha pramukh’ in some constituencies and added that by January 15 next year 3.3 lakh pristha pramukh will be appointed to strengthen the party.
Dass, however, expressed his ignorance over the alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and said that the party’s central leadership would take the decision on the issue.
“We have written to the Central leadership about the bitter relationship we had with the AGP during the panchayat polls. However, it was the central leadership who had decided to have the alliance with the AGP in 2016. So the Central leadership of the party will take a decision in this regard for Lok Sabha polls too,” Dass said.
A day after BJP president Amit Shah promised to chase out each of the ghuspethiye (infiltrators) from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and Kohima to Kutch, president of the Assam unit of the saffron party, Ranjit Kumar Dass on Monday clarified that Shah did not meant those whose names did not figure in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) but the ‘infiltrators’ in general, who had been living in the country.
Regarding BJP president Amit Shah’s statement on Sunday referring to the over 40 lakh people who were left out of the final draft NRC in Assam as infiltrators, the state BJP president clarified, “He did not mean to those whose name did not figure in the NRC. During UPA time, several time statements were made in Parliament saying that there were 40 lakh or 80 lakh infiltrators in Assam. Our president was referring to those statements.”