Himanta Biswa Sarma Not To Contest; Work As NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance) Convenor

GUWAHATI: Its official now: Himanta Biswa Sarma will not contest the Lok Sabha election this time. Further, the party has finalized candidates for eight out of the 10 LS seats in the State. However, they are yet to finalize the candidates for Nagaon and Tezpur.

Informing this to the media here on Monday, BJP State president Ranjit Kumar Dass further said, “BJP’s general secretary and North East in-charge, Ram Madhav had earlier told me that Himanta Biswa Sarma would contest the general election this time. So, the State election committee of our party recommended his name. But in Delhi, BJP party president Amit Shah felt that Himanta Biswa Sarma should instead concentrate on the poll prospects of the BJP and its allies in the entire North East as Sarma is already the convenor of NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance). So, we decided to leave him out of the list of candidates for the general election.”

There were also reports that Sarma’s name was suggested by the party’s State poll panel for the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat.

With reference to the resignation of RP Sarmah, MP from Tezpur, from the BJP over reports that his name was not included in the list of candidates sent by the State party poll cell to the Central leadership, Dass said, “His name was included in the candidates’ list. In fact, the panel has names of more than two prospective candidates from each Parliamentary constituency. Even in the Delhi meeting, we included all the names as mentioned in the panel besides a few new ones.”

On seat finalization, Dass stated, “Discussions are still on for the two Lok Sabha seats of Tezpur and Nagaon. Names of party candidates for the remaining eight seats are finalized. The list is awaiting the nod of party president Amit Shah.”

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