BJP picks Sonowal to head Assam campaign

Learning from the mistakes of Bihar polls,  the BJP has decided to project a face in Assam Assembly polls due early next year.

Party president Amit Shah appointed Union Minister of State (Independent) for Sports and Youth Affairs Sarbananda Sonowal as the new BJP Assam president and head of the Assembly election management committee.

“This is an important responsibility given to me. With the help of our leaders and supporters and the voters, we were successful in the 2014 general elections. This time, I would try my best to keep that winning momentum going,” Sonowal said in Guwahati.

Though giving Sonowal additional responsibility signals that he will be projected as the possible chief ministerial face, the BJP has not junked Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s former aide and minister Himanta Biswa, who recently joined along with more than half a dozen MLAs. 

“Biswa will be party’s Election Committee convenor,” said Union minister Prakash Javadekar at a press conference here.

Sonowal will replace Siddhartha Bhattacharya, whose term ended last month. Sonowal and Bhattarcharya do not enjoy best of the relations, given that both of them nurture the same ambition. 

Perhaps, to rehabilitate him respectively, Bhattacharya was appointed as the party’s national spokesperson for north-eastern states. Javadekar stated that Bhattacharya along with MPs Ramen Deka and Rajen Gohain will be the three vice-chairman of the election management committee.

Javadekar, however, did not give in to reporters’ queries that bringing Sonowal back as the state party president would signal that the sports minister would be chief ministerial face, saying that the Parliamentary Board will take a call at an appropriate time.

“This is the beginning of our election preparation for Assam. In 2016, BJP will return to its winning ways,” the leader from Maharashtra said.

Shah will attend a party meeting in Dibrugarh on November 27 to gear up his organisation’s election machinery. The latest move signal’s a departure from the election strategy followed in Bihar.