Election year for Sonowal

The BJP-led coalition government of Assam headed by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has completed four years in office and has now entered its fifth year, which is also the crucial election year for him and the ruling alliance. Though the state – along with the rest of the country, as also with the world – has been reeling under the impact of an unprecedented situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bharatiya Janata Party has recently set the election ball rolling by seeking performance report cards from each of its legislators. Interestingly, while on earlier occasions parties generally call for performance report cards of only their own MLAs, the saffron party's national president JP Nadda however has sought a report card of each of the MLAs belonging to the ruling alliance. This means that the performance report cards of the AGP and BPF legislators too will have to be submitted to the BJP's national president. Most interestingly, unlike before when two sets of performance report cards were collected – one from the MLA himself or herself and one from the state unit of the BJP, the saffron party's national president has this time sought reports cards from the voters on the performance of their respective MLAs. Moreover, the saffron party chief has also asked voters of constituencies represented by opposition MLAs too. This in fact is a first-of-its-kind effort to empower the voters to submit online their individual assessment and performance report about their respective MLAs, irrespective of the party affiliation of the elected representative, in all the 126 constituencies. This means the performance report card of the Congress and AIUDF legislators will also land up in the BJP headquarters, which will provide a ready reckoner for the party to select its own. This is definitely a very good step taken by the BJP which will empower the voters on one hand and expose the strength and weaknesses of the respective legislators. This process, if conducted properly, will definitely lead to denial of party tickets to many BJP legislators. Going by what the people have been seeing and experiencing, one should not be surprised if the BJP high command is compelled to replace up to fifty per cent of its sitting MLAs in Assam. This is because, many of the present set of MLAs belonging to the ruling alliance comprising the BJP, Asom Gana Parishad and BPF had simply done nothing in the past four years. Given this ground reality, Chief Minister Sonowal will have to really work hard in the next few months.