GUWAHATI: Ahead of the assembly elections, Assam Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has planned to usher in the saffron colour to showcase its acceptance across the state.
Assam Chief Minister (CM) Sarbananda Sonowal had appealed to the citizens of the state to come forward and participate in this marathon exercise to paint their houses/buildings in one uniform colour scheme.
CM Sonowal had reasoned that this could help to boost tourism in the state.
The move clearly is a well thought out election strategy and the state unit of the party is gearing itself up for the mass campaign to paint important locations across the state with the Lotus symbol to be done with an aim to showcase the acceptance of the BJP across the length and breadth of Assam.
“The party won’t extend any financial support in this initiative. We will create awareness about this mass initiative which will help to attract tourists to the state,” a state BJP spokesperson told G Plus.
It may be mentioned that the political colour strategy is very much a ploy in the neighbouring state of West Bengal. After Trinamool Congress led by Mamata Banerjee came to power in West Bengal the entire city of Kolkata, starting from street lights and pavements, were painted in green colour.
Understandably, the opposition Congress is miffed with the move and termed it as an “advertisement and event management” stance.
“This is nothing but the usual pomp and show of BJP which they are experts at. They are a party of advertisement and event management. They know that people of Assam have seen their true face and are disillusioned with them whether it be the issue of sky-high price rise of essential commodities, petrol, and diesel. The utter helplessness of our youth in the face of rising unemployment is staring at them and they are talking of painting lotuses on billboards to motivate people? Nothing can be more pathetic than this for the people of our state and country,” Bobeeta Sharma, General Secretary and senior spokesperson of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee told G Plus.
But this mass exercise is likely to face resistance from the election commission's code of conduct committee as, according to the guidelines, no graffiti is allowed during the election campaigns.