Newly joined BJP leaders may seal fate on some party MLAs

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, June 14: The BJP in Assam is really choosy these days in selecting its candidates for the 2016 Assembly elections. The idiom 'beggars can't be choosers' no longer fits the party in Assam.

Dearth of suitable candidates is passe for the party in the State. With the Assembly elections in the state coming closer, the number of aspirants for BJP tickets from each and every Legislative Assembly Constituency (LAC) in the State is rising fast. It seems to be a harrowing time for the party leadership to zero in on the right candidates as the intra-party race for tickets seems to be a neck-and-neck one. Grapevines are that a number of sitting party MLAs may not get party tickets this time around. Of course, a number of party MLAs in the State have already earned bad mes in their outgoing term as MLA.  

The situation is such that the party cannot ignore those who have joined the party now with the hope of getting party tickets in the Assembly elections, nor can it reject the pleas of party workers and sitting MLAs who have been rendering their services for the party for a long time.

According to party sources, Dibrugarh BJP MLA Prasanta Phukan is likely to have a tough time this time around with as many as 12 ticket aspirants coming out in the LAC for party tickets for the forthcoming Assembly elections from the LAC. Of the 12 ticket aspirants, according to party sources, in the forefront is Dr. Siddhartha Sarma who has the backing of all young party workers in the LAC. A grapevine doing the rounds in the LAC is that 'Phukan has issued  a secret diktat to the Dibrugarh district BJP committee not to receive any applications from BJP ticket aspirants in the LAC'. The rule being followed by the party is that party ticket aspirants have to submit their applications seeking party tickets through their respective district committees. This rumour, according to sources in the party, has already started erosion of support base of Phukan in the LAC.

The situation being faced by BJP MLA from Kamalpur LAC, Yadav Deka, is no different from that of Phukan. BJP's state general secretary Bhabesh Kalita seems to have emerged as the strongest party ticket aspirant in the LAC.

Former Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) president Manoj Baruah, who  joined the BJP today, is set to seal the fate of BJP's Patacharkuchi MLA Manoranjan Das. According to sources, the former AJYCP leader has joined the BJP with the condition of fighting the 2016 Assembly elections in the State on a BJP ticket from Patacharkuchi.

Meanwhile, the party has asked all its district committees to submit the lists of ticket aspirants of the party to the State Committee by June 18. The process of selection of candidates in the party, according to sources, will be over by October.