BJP confident of winning all contesting seats in Assam: Ram Madhav

Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is confident of winning all the constituencies that it has contested in the state, Ram Madhav, national general secretary, said at the party’s state headquarters in Guwahati, Assam on Friday.

Based on ground reports, Ram Madhav said, “We are very confident of winning all the nine seats that have already gone to polls and in which we contested. And in the last phase also… in which one seat is being contested by our candidate, we are working very hard to get the mandate in favour of our candidate.”

He said this time BJP is confident of winning the 10 seats against 2014, in which it had won seven seats from the state, because this time, the party has gone to the masses with a “report card” of all the work done as the Union government in last five years for the development of the state and for the entire northeast. “We are confident that our report card will speak for us and people will certainly support us,” he added.

“15 years of Congress misrule [in Assam], the kachra (garbage) that has been in the state for 15 years of Congress [rule] needed to be cleaned up, which is being very efficiently done by Mr [chief minister] Sarbananda Sonowal and his team,” the BJP leader said.

Taking a dig at the Congress, Madhav said, “Our adversaries have nothing to showcase to the people. They don’t exist in large parts of the country, including the Northeast. Assam is Congress mukt (free), so is entire Northeast.”

Further, he questioned the people campaigning for Congress candidates in the state saying that they are rejected leaders. They have been voted out of power due to poor governance, and they are questioning the governance of PM Modi. “For any allegations to be credible, those who are making those allegations should have some credibility,” the national secretary said.

On the issue of infiltrators in Assam and Northeast, Madhav blamed the then Congress government for allowing it to happen, saying, “The Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan Act was repealed by the then Congress government at the Centre had opened the doors for infiltrators from then Pakistan.”

He also criticised former CM Tarun Gogoi for backing out in 2010 when initial preparation for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was underway.

Madhav cited the Congress candidate from Silchar, Sushmita Dev, who in the last Parliamentary session argued that all those who voted in 2014 should be treated as citizens of Assam, saying, “This is complete negation of NRC.”

He said, “It is the Congress party which has all along been harming the interest of not only Assam but the entire Northeast, and in the process, the interest of our country also. We are committed to protecting the interest of the people of Northeast, their culture, their identity, their heredity, their traditions, that is why we brought NRC. We are committed to implementing the Clause 6 of Assam Accord.”

Hinting at the AIUDF, Madhav said, “The Congress party here has opened understanding with a party fully identified with infiltrators. And they are talking about BJP’s agenda with respect to Assam?”

He said it was historic to see the pan-Indian wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding: “We are confident that the BJP will secure as big a mandate, if not bigger, as the one we did in 2014. Together with NDA, we will again be in a position to give five years of a stable, development-oriented government for this country under the leadership of PM Modi.”