GUWAHATI, March 16: Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress’ senior observer for the Assam Assembly elections, Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday raked up the issue of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), saying that “the every vote to Congress will ensure that CAA is not implemented in Assam”
Campaigning for Congress candidate from Naharkatia, Pranati Phukan at the Gandhi Field in Namrup, Baghel said CAA, which has been brought by the BJP government, would be withdrawn if the Congress came back to power again in Assam.
“If you give Congress your vote, the culture, tradition and identity of Assam will be preserved,” Baghel said, asking why the BJP leaders are “silent on CAA” now.
Earlier, the Congress leader took to Twitter to say” “BJP is keeping mum on CAA in Assam. Centre is dragging (its) feet on implementing it. But people of Assam now understand BJP’s agenda and they are going to vote accordingly.
Congress has “guaranteed” to bring a law to nullify CAA, if it is voted to power in Assam.
Baghel, who has been campaigning for Congress candidates in Upper Assam over the past three days, accused the BJP-led government of emotionally exploiting the people.
He further slammed the incumbent BJP government for “selling public property to private parties.”
“Public assets and industries are not safe in the country with the BJP in power. The BJP government is selling public property to private parties, be it airports or railway stations or oil and gas installations. BJP is nothing but a party of “jumla…” they only announce, be it 2 crore jobs to people or any other… but fail to live up to their announcements,” he alleged.
“The BJP government has failed to build the fourth unit of Brahmaputra Valley Fertiliser Corporation Limited (BVFCL). If you vote for Congress, then BVFCL will survive, otherwise it will be sold off to private parties,” Baghel said.
Naharkatia is heading towards a triangular contest between Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi in the fray along with Congress and BJP.
The Chhattisgarh chief minister further highlighted the “failure” of the BJP government in regard to increasing minimum daily wages of tea workers in the state to Rs 351.
“BJP had promised to increase wages of tea garden workers to Rs 351 but failed in the last five years. Recently, a token hike was announced which again is yet to be implemented. BJP will only make fake promises. But, if our party is voted to power in Assam, we will fulfill all the ‘5 Guarantees’ promised by our leader Rahul Gandhi recently,” Baghel said.