BJP sets 'Mission 100' in Assam

After winning nine of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, the BJP has set the target to achieve "Mission 100" in the next Assembly elections in 2021, party leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said here on Tuesday.

Assam has 126 Assembly seats and Sarma said that winning at least 100 would be the target of the BJP and its regional allies. The BJP at present leads the alliance government with 67 seats of its own.

"Soon after the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cabinet on May 30, we will start our work to get at least 100 seats in 2021. We will work harder for development of the state in tandem with our alliance partners to achieve our goal," Sarma told reporters here, soon after BJP leader Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and Birendra Kumar Baishya of BJP ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) submitted their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections on June 7.

As per the pre-poll alliance, the AGP contested in three Lok Sabha seats and Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), another ally, in one but both drew a blank.

Two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam will fall vacant after the expiry of terms of former prime minister Manmohan Singh and Santiuse Kujur on June 15.

The Congress this time has decided not to field Singh, the nine-time Rajya Sabha member from Assam, as the Opposition party does not have the number.

President of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Ripun Bora, said that the party wanted to field a common candidate of the Opposition parties, including the AIUDF but relented after getting no response from others.

Assam has seven Rajya Sabha seats. Sarma said that the BJP would give another Rajya Sabha seat to a leader from BPF when three more seats fall vacant next.

Sarma, who switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2015 after allegedly being sidelined by AICC president Rahul Gandhi, said that Rahul's continuance as Congress chief would help the BJP in elections.

"As a party, the BJP wants Rahul Gandhi to continue for the next 50 years as it will help us win elections easily. But we want a strong Opposition for a stronger democracy. But that will not happen till Gandhi stays," he said.

Sarma was instrumental to wrest power from the Congress in the state in 2016 and win nine Lok Sabha seats against only three by the Congress this time.