Assam Assembly Election 2021: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dropped its sitting MLA from Hojai, Shiladitya Dev, and fielded Ramkrishna Ghosh for the assembly elections to be held in 3 phases from March 27. Dev is infamous for his provocative speeches against minorities. Upset with the denial of a ticket, Dev announced that he will quit the BJP.
Dev claims that he has been connected with the BJP and RSS for the final 30 years. “Finally, I have been kicked out of BJP,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
As per , Dev told reporters that he had been side-lined for speaking on Hindutva’s behalf. “They (BJP) have politically murdered me for being aggressive for Hindutva. The BJP of Atal ji and Advani ji is no longer there. It’s a commercial party now,” Dev stated.
On Wednesday evening, news agency PTI reported that former Deputy Speaker Dilip Kumar Paul and Shiladitya Dev had resigned from the BJP. The leaders, the report stated, also alleged that conspiracies have been hatched against them by some leaders in the party. Dev and Paul have been each denied tickets by the saffron party.
On Sunday, BJP leader and cabinet minister Sum Ronghang had joined the Congress soon after becoming denied a ticket from the Diphu constituency.
In July final year, Dev had stated that he wanted to leave the party simply because of increasing ‘groupism’ inside the state BJP.
An opinion poll by Times Now-C Voter has predicted close fight among the ruling BJP and the Congress. The poll predicts 67 seats for the saffron party whilst 57 for the Congress. Earlier, the gap was substantial but now it is narrowing. In 2016, the BJP-led NDA had won 86 seats whilst the Congress had bagged 26 seats.
Assam will vote in 3 phases, Phase-I on March 27, Phase-II on April 1, Phase-II on April 6. Results will be declared on May 2.