In what may embarrass the ruling Congress party the most, Assam BJP here on Sunday announced to field at least two native Muslim candidates in the ensuing Assembly elections while accusing the ruling Congress party of ignoring them to keep the Muslim voters of Bangladesh origin in good humour.
Claiming that the native Assamese Muslims in the state have started turning towards the saffron party in Upper Assam, BJP president Ranjit Dutta told reporters, “We have taken care of all the ethnic groups in giving representation. This will reflect in our candidate list also as we are going to nominate at lest two Assamese Muslim as candidate for the first time in the state.”
“The Congress party may have many Muslim MLAs but the party never gave opportunity to any Assamese Muslim even after their sizeable population,” said Mr Dutta while accusing the ruling party of ignoring Assamese Muslims in governance too.
In an obvious attempt to woo Muslims, Mr Dutta said, “In the next list of candidates which will be declared by the BJP state unit on March 10, several Muslim candidates will be given chance. There is one Muslim for the Upper Assam seat also. There would be many more minority candidates in our next list, especially for the Lower Assam districts.”
Meanwhile, the candidates who failed to get a ticket vented their anger by protesting outside the BJP office in Guwahati. Several protesters ransacked the office and damaged property.
The party workers were angry over the selection of candidate for Morigaon and Dispur Assembly segments.