BJP disarrayed in Assam; can Jamwal set house in order?

Where is State BJP headquarters? At Uzan Bazar or at Atal Behari Vajpayee Bhavan at Hengrabari?

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 20: All is not well in the BJP in Assam. A worried tiol party president, Amit Shah, has taken a major step to put Ajay Jamwal as the party’s Northeast organizatiol general secretary with effect from October 24 so as to keep the disarrayed party in the State in good shape. The party high command has even gone to the extent of suspecting that some moles well-paced by other parties are active in the State committee of the party.

According to party sources, things started to go pear-shaped in the party in the State due to lack of cooperation among its MPs, MLAs and leaders of the State committee with one another. They are even engaged in making statements against one another. The situation has come to such a pass that the there lies a wide gap between the leaders of the party and its grassroots workers, and the gulp is still yawning.

In fact, the BJP’s organization was never strong in Assam. It was riding on the rendra Modi wave the party could win as many as seven of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the last Lok Sabha elections. In the aftermath of the win, the party in Assam has scripted a record by enrolling around 25 lakh through miscall, but it has failed to keep them in touch. Considering its results in the last Lok Sabha polls, the party has set Mission 84 plus in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state. However, even after 16 months of the announcement of results of the Lok Sabha polls, the State committee of the party has not been able to form booth committees in all the 28,000 polling booths in the State.

According to sources in the party, only tangible development in the party is joining by leaders and workers from other parties and organizations. However, even all office-bearers of the State committee are well informed of such joining, let alone senior leaders of the party in the State.

 The State committee of the party also has an organizatiol general secretary, Phani Sarma, so as to make the organization work smoothly. However, he, according to sources, has failed to satisfy the party high command that has already appointed an assistant organizatiol general secretary, Ajay Konwar.

Meanwhile, the party’s Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh, Assam observer Rammadhab, Union minister Sarbanda Sonowal and State president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya had a closed-door meeting recently and discussed organizatiol matters.

A section of State leaders of the party are not able to digest it without a pinch of salt that Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined the party only in the recent past, having frequent closed-door meetings with some newly-joined party leaders. One such meeting was held with Jewel Garlosa and some his party colleagues at a city hotel last night. The former Congress leader remaining present at top-level party meetings has also raised many an eyebrow in the party.

tiol in-charge of the party Mahendra Singh has been camping in Guwahati, intervening in each and every issue of the party in the State. And Jamwal is set to take charge on October 24 to look after party matters from the party office located at Uzan Bazar. This has created a confusion among the people of the State if the party headquarters will be at Uzan Bazar or at Atal Behari Vajpayee Bhavan at Hengrabari in the city.