GUWAHATI, May 15 — Overcoming the initial shock and the internal bickering that followed its somewhat lacklustre electoral performance in the Lok Sabha polls in the State, the State Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today tried to put up a brave front and claimed that there was nothing for it to be dispirited by the Lok Sabha poll results. Rather, it said, the party had secured the highest number of votes in 28 of the 126 Legislative Assembly Constituencies (LACs) of the State.
The party has won two of the 14 Lok Sabha seats, namely, Nagaon and Mangaldoi, in the State, while its ally ABSU-BPAC combine, repeating the performance of the 1999 elections, has won the Kokrajhar (ST) seat. So, the number of Lok Sabha seats remains the same so far as the party and its allies are concerned. It maintains that by not forging an alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) it had not committed any blunder. But the State leaders of the party had no way out but to admit that the results of the Lok Sabha polls in the State were not up to their expectation.
Addressing mediapersons at a press conference here today, State BJP president Indramoni Bora claimed that the results of the Lok Sabha polls had indicated that in the coming days the BJP would be calling the shots in the State politics. The party has been able to spread its influence to newer areas and all ethnic groups of the State have embraced the party, he claimed. The party’s tally would have been a little bigger had the Congress refrained from rigging the elections in Karimganj and Silchar. The party had earlier drawn the attention of the Election Commission (EC) towards the possibility of such illegal activities by the Congress in these two constituencies and demanded even the presence of special observers of the EC at Karimganj during the counting of votes. The party is now contemplating to move the court in this connection, said Bora.
However, in reply to questions from the mediapersons, he said that the party would make to a comprehensive assessment of its performance so as to identify its weaknesses. Already the district committees have been asked to review their performances. The State committee will be reviewing the overall performance after receiving reports from the district committees. The party will take to self-criticism if the situation so warrants, Bora said.
When pointed out to the criticism of his leadership by the former Union Minster Bijoya Chakravorty and even by the BJP candidate for Guwahati, Dr Bhupen Hazarika, for the party’s defeat in Guwahati, as reported by a section of the print media, he ruled out his resigning from the post of party president saying that he was not going to buckle under pressure.
“The State committee of the BJP has not committed any mistake. I am not going to resign under pressure form any quarter. The party constitution has laid down the norms for such acts. If the situation so demands, I will consider tendering my resignation,” he said. He also denied that the BJP central leaders had received any complaint from Dr Hazarika against the party’s State leadership. “We will be meeting Dr Hazarika this evening to know whether he had any complaint against the State leadership of the party,” he said.
He also said emphatically that the State BJP had run the entire campaign of Dr Hazarika and Bijoya Chakravorty was requested by the party observer to campaign for the party candidates in the State. Bora denied having any knowledge of senior party functionary Ashok Singhal sabotaging the party’s efforts at getting Dr Hazarika elected from Guwahati. However, he described the reported criticism by Bijoya Chakravorty of the State leadership as unbecoming of a party member. State vice-president of the party, Dhruva Prasad Baishya, its general secretary Bishwadeep Bhattacharjee and spokesman Tapan Choudhury were also present at the press conference.