BJP fields 4 new & 3 old faces in the 7 Assembly constituencies in Cachar

March 5: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after series of deliberations finally announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections. Though a surprise for many, yet it was a mixture of new and old faces. Three sitting MLA’s were provided the party tickets to contest in the upcoming polls. They are Aminul Haque Laskar from Sonai, Parimal Suklabaidya from Dholai and Mihir Kanti Shome from Udharbond. Apart from them, the party inducted 4 new faces. They are Dipayan Chakraborty from Silchar, Gautam Roy from Katigorah, Kaushik Rai from Lakhipur and Amalendu Das from Borkhola.

However, for many of the party supporters, the deletion of the name of Dilip Kumar Paul and the induction of Dipayan Chakraborty seemed to be a bolt from the blue. On condition of anonymity, an ardent supporter of BJP from Silchar said, “To deprive ticket to a man who worked relentlessly for the last 5 years is indeed shocking. As a dedicated supporter of BJP, I would put my weight behind whosoever the party nominates, but ignoring a successful candidate may cost the party in the long run.”

Another sympathiser of the party seeming somewhat disillusioned said, “If Mihir Kanti Shome could be given a second term, then there arises no reason to bring in new face in the Silchar constituency.” Though speculations were ripe on Friday night that Dilip Paul might contest the election from Silchar as an independent candidate, however, there was no official confirmation that could sustain this claim. However, another lot of BJP supporters welcomed the decision of the party and expressed optimism that “Dipayan Chakraborty too will retain the prestigious seat of Silchar constituency by a wide margin.”

Gautam Roy’s calculation of joining the saffron brigade after being a Congress minister for decades yielded desirable results in the long run. He was successful in getting the party’s ticket in Katigorah constituency. However, all calculation of former Congress MLA from Lakhipur, Rajdeep Goala went wrong as the BJP whom he joined recently turned its face from him. Goala himself and his supporters were learnt to have been demoralised by this decision of BJP. Sources close to him even commented that Mr. Goala should rethink of coming back to the fold of the Congress immediately!

Meanwhile, the nomination of Kaushik Rai for the Lakhipur assembly constituency also became the talk of the day. His exit from the post of BJP District President will definitely witness another race from among the party-men to adorn this coveted chair. As per sources, the nomination of Kaushik Rai, Dipayan Chakraborty and Amalendu Das, while ignoring the candidature of Kanad Purkayastha also seemed to be a bitter pill to digest for the veteran BJP leader and former Union Minister Kabindra Purkayastha. This has given rise to a wide range of speculations in the arena of politics of Barak Valley in the forthcoming days.