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Bharatiya Janata Party's Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday filed his nomination from Jalukbari Assembly constituency as he eyes a second term as Assam Chief Minister.
The CM filed the nomination at the District Commissioner's office of Kamrup (Metro) district in Guwahati, where he reached with a large number of BJP supporters, showcasing his strength ahead of the assembly polls. Going into the polls, Himanta Biswa Sarma laid down his objective for Assam, centred around the identity and development of the state. "This will be my seventh election. I'll get full support from the people of Assam. We want to secure identity of Assam. We want to have faster development. These two are our objectives." He also thanked Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi for seeing him as the only opponent in the upcoming elections. "I offer my deep thanks to him (Gaurav Gogoi) that, instead of fighting with a party, he said he is fighting with an individual. That means today I have become an institution even though I'm not, but if you get a compliment, then you should thank," he said. He further added that more people from Congress will join the party, stating that it is his mission to bring every Hindu in "fold of the BJP". "I think more people will join. I am going to have every Hindu person in the fold of the BJP. That is my mission because Hindus should be united," he said. Himanta Biswa Sarma is a five-time MLA from Jalukbari. First elected in 2001, he served three terms in Congress before his famous switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party to fight in the 2016 elections. Assam CM's wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma exuded confidence in Himanta Biswa Sarma's victory, stating that the public is overwhelmed by his work. "This will be his second term, and the people are overwhelmed by the work and change Assam has seen. Today we are here to go for the second term, that too with a sweeping majority," she said. Assam will witness a fight between the incumbent BJP-led NDA government and Congress for the 126-seat assembly on April 9. The counting of votes will be done on May 4. In 2021, the NDA, comprising the BJP, AGP and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), had won 75 seats, with the BJP alone winning 60 seats. The Congress and AIUDF had formed a grand alliance along with the BPF and the communist parties, but the alliance performed poorly with just 16 seats out of 126. Voter turnout was as high as 86.2 per cent with over 2. 2 crore registered voters in 2021. (ANI)
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