GUWAHATI: After five veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members in Assam were denied tickets to contest the forthcoming elections, many old BJP members are upset with the party and Gauhati East MLA Siddhartha Bhattacharya.
Bhattacharya is known as the man who had persuaded Jalukbari MLA Himanta Biswa Sarma to switch parties from Congress to BJP; thereafter, quite clearly, the old BJP members in the state have been calculatedly sidelined.
“Old BJP members are unhappy and irked at Siddhartha as after he brought in Himanta, the old BJP members have been sidelined. Even Siddhartha’s attitude has changed and he has become very arrogant towards the BJP workers,” said a BJP member who is also one of the executive members of the state BJP executive committee.
Five sitting BJP members of parliament (MPs) – Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, Rajen Gohain, RP Sharma, Bijoya Chakravarty, and Ramen Deka were denied tickets this time and the MPs are upset with the decision of their saffron party.
After Pallab Lochan Das, known to be a close associate of Himanta Biswa Sarma, was named as BJP’s candidate from Tezpur Lok Sabha seat, sitting BJP MP Ram Prasad Sharma announced to form a new political party – New BJP. Sharma said, “The new party will be formed by the veteran leaders of Assam BJP who have been neglected for 15-20 years.”
BJP’s candidates for 2019 Lok Sabha elections include the names of Topon Gogoi (from Jorhat), Pallab Lochan Das (from Tezpur) and Rupak Sharma (from Nagaon) and all these candidates are known to be very close to Himanta Biswa Sarma.
A BJP member based in Guwahati said, “Siddhartha had brought in Himanta in 2015 for his own chief ministerial ambitions but after Himanta’s entry, even he (Siddhartha) has been somewhat sidelined.” Siddhartha Bhattacharya was the state BJP president when Himanta joined BJP but after the party formed the government in 2016, Siddhartha Bhattacharya did not attend the oath-taking ceremony and it was perceived that he did so in protest against not being given any ministry.
At present, he has two ministries under him but the old BJP members are not happy even with his performance as a minister.
“He (Siddhartha) is very arrogant and can be influenced easily by anyone,” said a BJP member under the condition of anonymity.
