Guwahati, Sep 22 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday asserted that members of the minority community have been with the BJP for a long time and they even vote for the party.
Talking to reporters in Diphu on the October 6 Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, he said that if one looks into the voting patterns in the assembly segments of the constituency, it is evident that Muslims vote for the BJP.
”If one analyses the last Lok Sabha elections in Nagaon, it can be seen that in its minority dominated assembly segments of Dhing, Rupahi, Samaguri and Laharighat, the BJP received more than 40,000 votes,” Sarma said.
There are not many Hindu people in these assembly segments, which implies that the minority community regularly votes for the BJP, he said.
”The percentage may be low, but we do get a certain share of their support and votes. We are hoping that in the forthcoming bypolls, this might increase further,” he said.
Sarma claimed that people have seen the progress and development that the BJP government has brought to the state while maintaining peace and fostering harmony among people.
”It is for this reason that people from all communities, minorities as well as majorities, vote for the BJP and we have evidence on this from the last elections,” he added.
The chief minister claimed last week that Nagaon is not a traditional BJP seat, but a visible change in favour of the party has been witnessed over the last month.
An atmosphere has been created where the people are moving towards the BJP and the situation is turning positive for the party with each day, Sarma said.
He had asserted that if the BJP manages to win this seat, the party will then secure all 126 seats in the state in the next assembly elections.
There are eight assembly segments in the constituency, and the BJP had won in four of these- Morigaon, Raha, Jagiroad and Nagaon-Batadraba by around 50,000 votes. But in the other segments of Rupohihat, Laharighat, Dhing and Samaguri, the opposition won by over 1.50 lakh votes in each, Sarma said.
The BJP’s candidate for the Nagaon bypoll is former IAS officer Debashish Sharma; the Congress has fielded former MLA Sibamoni Bora, and three-time AIUDF MP Badruddin Ajmal is also contesting the polls.
Polling will be held on October 6 and counting on April 9.
The bypoll was necessitated after sitting Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned from the Lok Sabha seat and the party to contest the Assembly elections from Dispur as a BJP candidate. PTI DG NN
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