BJP appoints Sarbananda Sonowal as party chief in Assam, to head poll panel

New Delhi: Apparently learning quick lessons from the Bihar debacle, BJP today appointed Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal as its Assam unit president and also as the head of election management committee ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, signalling that he could be its chief ministerial face. Making the announcement, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar said Himanta Biswa Sarma, a state Congress heavyweight who had recently joined BJP along with many Congress MLAs, will be the committee’s convener.[caption id=“attachment_2516342” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Sarbananda Sonowal. Image courtesy PIB[/caption] The party’s decision is a break from its strategy in Bihar where it had not projected a chief ministerial candidate. It had also not formed any statewide election committee and instead put many outsiders as well as local leaders in charge of various zones. A massive loss in Bihar triggered a backlash from within the party over its campaign. Sonowal currently holds independent charge of Sports and Youths Affairs Ministry. Javadekar parried a query on whether Sonowal will be the party’s chief ministerial face, saying a decision will be taken by the Parliamentary Board at an appropriate time. “This is the beginning of our election preparation for Assam. In 2016, BJP will return to its winning ways,” he said. Party president Amit Shah will go to Dibrugarh on 27 November to attend a party meeting, Javadekar said. Assam is the only one of the five states, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry being the other four, going to the polls in 2016 where BJP is said to have good chance of winning. Bijoy Chakraborty, Kamakhya Tasha, Rajdeep Ray, Vijay Gupta and Mohammad Awal are the members of the election committee. Congress is in power in Assam for the last 15 years. Javadekar said Assam was ready for a change and cited BJP’s victory in local body elections as en evidence of its strong position. “The way Congress has ruled in the state no section of society is happy,” he said. He also pooh-poohed coming together of non-BJP leaders at the swearing in of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister, saying they were brought together by their bitterness against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. BJP was talking about development but the opposition leaders are talking about opposing Modi, he said. PTI