BJP picks holes Congress’ promises

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, February 2: The BJP today picked holes  in the modus operandi of the Congress in the latter’s way of making promises and giving assurances to the voters on the forthcoming civic body elections.

Talking to this reporter, state BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya said: “The ruling party in the state thinks that the problems afflicting the 74 wards in the municipal boards and town committees of the state are one and the same. The ground reality is that each and every ward has its own problems that are quite different from the problems of other wards. We need to adopt a ward–specific approach to serve the urban people in the state.”

Bhattacharyya further said: “Releasing an election manifesto is a tradition. The Congress has just followed the tradition. The party also made some tall promises which it can never keep.”

While the Congress opted to follow the age–old trodden path of releasing a common poll  manifesto for all the 74 constituencies of the civic bodies in the state, the BJP opted to tread a path hitherto uncharted by any party in the state – by releasing an appeal for each of the 74 constituencies with focus on local problems and issues of individual constituencies.

Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Anjan Dutta yesterday released the party manifesto for the ensuing municipal board and town committee elections of the state with a number of promises, besides a number of assurances given in the last civic body polls but have not been met as yet. State BJP president Siddartha Bhattacharyya, on the other hand, opted to go off beat so as to take special attention to the local problems and issues of the 74 constituencies which, for obvious reasons, can never be the same. Instead of releasing any poll manifesto for the civic body polls, Bhattacharyya said that his party would release as many as 74 appeals, one for each of the 74 constituencies, by according more importance on local problems and issues constituency–wise. Such an approach, Bhattacharyya said, would be more effective in solving local problems.

Meanwhile, reacting to APCC’s media in–charge Ripun Bora’s comment against him, Bhattacharyya said: “Bora is an intolerant person. His comment doesn’t deserve any reaction.”

Ripun said yesterday: “Bhattacharyya is poking his nose in the interl matters of the Congress since he has realized that the Congress is set to make it to Dispur yet again. Every MLA has the right to become a minister. It’s the prerogative of the Chief Minister to me his list of ministers, and obviously not at the diktat of Bhattacharyya. He, however, is poking his nose on such matters too.”