Nadda launches poll campaign in Assam;asserts BJP will win 100 plus seats

With Assembly elections in Assamonly months away, BJP President J P Nadda on Monday launchedparty's poll campaign in the state,asserting it will return topower for the second consecutive term by winning hundred plusseats in the 126-member House.

The party since the 2016 assembly win in the state hasemerged victorious in all the elections-whether it be theParliamentary, byelections, zilla parishads, panchayats,territorial or autonomous councils-and will come to poweragain in the next assembly polls, Nadda said while addressing'Vijay Sankalp' rally at the police parade ground here.

''This has been possible due to all-round development of allsections of the people and the entire state by the governmentof Sarbananda Sonowal with the support of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi'', he said.

Its BJP's ''double engine'' government at the centre and thestate that has led to proper implementation of all the schemesin the various sectors, he said.

''It is in the entire country that people have time and againreposed faith in Modi ji which has resulted in the BJP winningalmost all elections at all levels'', Nadda said.

Recent elections at Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat,Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and North East haveshown that people want to be part of Modi ji's ''model ofdevelopment'' and they also served as an example of ''how aparty and the government can work together''.

Starting BJP's poll campaign from the Barak valley, whichhas a sizeable population of the Hindu Bengalis, issignificant as it was here that the party had began itsjourney in the state winning two Lok Sabha seats and nineassembly seats for the first time in the early nineties.

Barak valley comprises of 15 assembly segments in thethree districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi districts.

Polls in Assam is due in March-April this year.

The BJP president, harping on the development agenda ofthe government, steered clear of the twin issues of NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) which was published in 2019 but isyet to be implemented and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)which created a stir in the rest of Assam but was welcomed inthe Barak valley.

Nadda asserted that BJP has given due recognition andprotection to Assam's culture, language and identity.

He pointed out that it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee who hadtaken the demands raised during the Assam agitation againstthe foreigners to both inside and outside the Parliament.

It was Vajpayee who raised the slogan- ''Srinagar ho yaGuwahati.....Kerala ho ya Guwahati.....apni desh, apni maati''(whether it be Srinagar or Guwahati, Kerala or Guwahati....itis our nation, our land'').

Highlighting the saffron party's attachment with Assam,Nadda said it was the BJP government that bestowed BharatRatna on Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi and Bhupen Hazarika-theformer when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister andthe latter by Modi ji, he added.

Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shahresolved the 50-year old Bodo issue by signing Bodo Accord dueto which the territorial integrity of the state remainedintact and the militants were also brought to the mainstream.

More than four thousand people had lost their lives but theBJP took all the stakeholders into confidence and the BodoAccord in January last year ensured that their demands weregiven due recognition along with a Rs 1500 crore as arehabilitation package for the militants, Nadda pointed out.

In neighbouring Tripura, too, the long standing Bru-Reangstandoff has been resolved with a package of Rs 600 crore and36,000 internally displaced families rehabilitated, he added.

The Land Boundary Agreement with neighbouring Bangladeshand the subsequent land swap has also allayed the fear of thepeople of Assam, he said.

The subsequent smart fencing project of the border will alsosolve the problem of trafficking which is rampant in Assam, headded.

During the 15-year Congress rule in the state,2155 civiliansand 284 security forces personnel were killed,1200 personswere kidnapped, 51 per cent of the population had no power and56 per cent were without toilets, he alleged.

Attacking the Congress further, Nadda said they startedprojects and delayed the work which escaled the cost but nevercompleted those projects.

After the BJP government came to power in Assam in 2016,it completed the Bhupen Hazarika Bridge, Bogibeel Bridge andthe Gas Cracker Project in the state, he said.

The new projects include the All India Institute ofMedical Sciences at Guwahati to be set up at a cost of Rs13,500 crore with a recurring cost of Rs 2000 crore annuallyand ''I am fortunate to sanction this when I was the UnionHealth Minister'', Nadda said.

He also claimed that the Numaligarh Refinery was given aboost and the bio-refinery upgraded, 15 new national highwayswere created, 21 state highways upgraded and five new bridgeswill be set up over the river Brahmaputra.

It was due to Modi's initiative that 35 lakh toilets weremade and Assam became Open Defecation Free, along withproviding 17 lakh new gas connections, leading to womenempowerment, he said.

Referring to the state government's initiative of providingscooty and cycles to girl students, Nadda said this was ''a wayof showing respect to women and providing them with anoppurtunity to pursue education and get empowered''.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)