Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Ram Madhav arrived in Guwahati on Friday for his two-day visit to Assam.
Apart from addressing the newly formed BJP Assam state executive committee, he is also likely to go for a series of closed-door meetings with top state leadership regarding various issues of the party.
A top source at the state BJP informed us that he will also be in talks with political parties from the Bodoland region, ahead of the forthcoming Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
Moreover, there is likely speculation that BJP stalwart Amit Shah—who recently recovered from Covid-19—sent Madhav to Assam to assess the atmosphere in the state ahead of a “likely” change in the chief minister.
While addressing a meeting from Kalakhetra in Guwahati, Madhav said, “We are sure that BJP will come in power again in 2021. We are not worrying about anything.”
Hitting hard on the opposition in Assam, he said, “there is no leadership in the opposition. Congress is already going through several internal disputes. With all these, there is no one to challenge us.”
In his speech, Madhav mentioned that there is no challenge for the BJP in Assam. But the sources said that the top BJP leadership is worried on the collation of Indian National Congress (INC) and AIUDF ahead of the election.
To settle the worries, the state leadership held a series of talks in August last week. A few days back, BJP’s National Organizational General Secretary B L Santosh arrived in Guwahati and held multiple talks with various stakeholders.
Read: B L Santosh In Assam: What Is More Important During The Pandemic?
A well-placed source at the party told us that the earlier meeting of Santosh was on dousing the internal rift in the party while Madhav would get in talks regarding the change in the leadership.
“We might get the news very soon. We have to wait for the right moment,” said a leader on condition of anonymity.
Earlier, Himanta Biswa Sarma hinted that he is eying for chief ministerial position while speaking to a local satellite channel when he mentioned that he has 100 MLAs by his side including MLAs from the Congress and other parties; and everyone would get to know of it when he visits the Governor with the 100 MLAs.
Sarma last month said that he is not keen on contesting the state polls due in mid-2021. He took to Twitter and said that his role would be limited to contributing to the party in whatever other ways he could.
If there is no challenge for BJP as mentioned by Madhav, why the party is going through multiple closed-door talks with top national leadership? Is election planning just an excuse to deviate the issue of internal rift amid the change in the chief minister?
