News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • All is not well in UP? Union Minister, Opposition rap Yogi government’s COVID-19 management

    By Express News Service
    LUCKNOW: Despite repeated assurances of Uttar Pradesh government that it was taking all efforts to contain the Covid pandemic in the BJP-ruled state, some Parliament members of the ruling party have been flagging the scathing issues faced by the public in their constituencies. 

    On Sunday Union minister and eight-time BJP MP from Bareilly constituency, Santosh Gangwar wrote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, highlighting the problems faced by Covid patients and their families.

    The veteran politician of the ruling party has also suggested some measures to improve the healthcare facilities in the district as well as the state.

    Gangwar has alleged that senior officers of the state medical department in Bareilly district were not attending phone calls of patients and attendants.  

    The union minister also raised the issue of people storing oxygen cylinders in their house as a precautionary measure, which was adding to the scarcity of medical oxygen in the district.

    There is an urgent need for identifying such people who are unnecessarily storing oxygen or are even black-marketing the cylinders, the MP said.

    He also raised the issue of patients being forced to run from one hospital to another in the name of referral letter. He suggested the UP CM to set up oxygen plants in Bareilly to ease in dealing with the increased demand of oxygen in the state.

    While pointing fingers at black-marketing of essential medical equipment used in hospitals, Gangwar suggested the chief minister that prices of medical equipment should be capped, while private hospitals registered under MSME should be given fiscal support.

    Just two days ago, BJP’s Lok Sabha member from Kanpur, Satyadev Pachauri had written a letter to the UP CM, mentioning that Covid-19 patients weren’t getting good treatment and many of them were losing lives outside their homes, outside hospitals or even in ambulances in Kanpur in want of adequate life-saving treatment.

    Pachauri had also suggested that the UP government should make all possible preparations now for combating the expected third wave of the fatal viral infection.

    Prior to it, Kaushal Kishor, BJP MP from Mohanlalganj in Lucknow district, too had written to the CM raising concern over shortage of medical oxygen, life-saving medicines and other necessary hospital equipment in Lucknow district.

    Meanwhile, Opposition Congress and Samajwadi Party on Sunday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of making false claims about controlling the COVID-19 situation in the state and “manipulating data”.

    They alleged that the administrative machinery and health services in the state are “completely paralysed” and the pandemic is spreading fast in villages as migrants returning home are not being tested.

    For days now, Uttar Pradesh has figured among the 10 biggest contributors to India’s COVID-19 tally.

    According to an official statement, the state recorded 23,333 fresh COVID-19 cases on Sunday that pushed its tally to 15,03,490 while 296 more fatalities took the death toll to 15,464.

    Every day, hundreds of COVID-19 deaths are being reported in Uttar Pradesh and most of them are due to the shortage of oxygen or medicines, state Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu said in a statement.

    This is frightening, but more frightening is the “manipulation of figures” by the government.

    But those who are losing their near and dear ones are exposing the government’s claims, he said.

    The state government is trying to act like an ostrich by burying its head in the sand, he added.

    Citing official data, Lallu said in the week starting April 24, 66 COVID-19 deaths were reported from Kanpur but according to data collected from crematoria, 462 people were cremated.

    Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said statements made by the Uttar Pradesh government claiming that coronavirus has been controlled in the state can prove to be more fatal than the pandemic.

    Coronavirus is spreading fast in villages.

    Labourers reaching their villages are not being tested.

    The administrative machinery and health services are “completely paralysed”, he claimed.

    Yadav further claimed that BJP MLAs and MPs are now openly expressing their “anger” over the functioning of the state government.

    “In Bareilly, Union minister, MP and MLAs have conveyed the reality to the chief minister,” he said.

    The “bitter truth” is that the state is drowning in gloom due to deaths while Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is busy undertaking air trips, he added.

    Union minister Santosh Gangwar has complained to Adityanath about COVID-19 management in Bareilly, saying officials don’t take calls and government health centres send back patients for “referrals” from the district hospital.

    The Union Labour minister, in a letter that was handed over to Adityanath during his visit to Bareilly on Saturday, has also complained about the “big shortage” of empty oxygen cylinders and the high prices of medical equipment in his Lok Sabha constituency.

    The total number of COVID-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh surged to 15,03,490 on Sunday as 23,333 more people tested positive for the disease while 296 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 15,464.

    This is the second consecutive day when daily deaths have remained below the 300-mark.

    On Saturday, the state had recorded 298 COVID-19 deaths.

    Lucknow reported the highest number of fresh cases at 1,436, followed by 1,425 in Meerut and 1,042 in Saharanpur, the Uttar Pradesh government said in a statement issued here.

    Of the 296 deaths, 26 each were reported from Lucknow and Kanpur, 15 from Jhansi, 13 from Bahraich, 11 from Ghazipur and 10 from Gautam Buddh Nagar, it said.

    As many as 34,636 COVID-19 patients were discharged in a day after they recovered from the disease, taking the total number of recoveries to 12,54,045, the statement said.

    The number of active COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 2,33,981, it stated.

    More than 2.29 lakh samples were tested in the state the previous day.

    With this, over 4.29 crore samples have been tested so far, it said.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Ministerial duty or Rajya Sabha seat? Sarbananda Sonowal’s future plans remain unknown

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: There remain unanswered questions on outgoing Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s political future after Himanta Biswa Sarma was unanimously elected to head the new government.

    However, BJP sources indicated Sonowal would be taken back to Delhi and given a ministerial berth.READ HERE | Himanta Biswa Sarma to take oath as Assam Chief Minister on May 10

    A Rajya Sabha seat is lying vacant after Biswajit Daimary had resigned to contest the Assembly elections. The BJP sources said Sonowal would be asked to fill in the seat.

    “He has been a very successful CM. The BJP central leadership sent him to Assam in 2016 on deputation to head the government after he had acquired knowledge as a Union minister. He will now be taken back to Delhi,” the BJP sources said.

    Sonowal was serving as the Union Sports and Youth Resources Minister prior to becoming the Assam CM.

    He started his political career in the All Assam Students’ Union and served it as its president from 1992-1999. Later, he joined the Asom Gana Parishad and was elected to the Assembly from Moran in 2001. In 2004, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Dibrugarh. In 2011, he had defected to the BJP and in 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time.

  • BJP strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma is new Assam CM

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: BJP strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma will be the new Assam chief minister.

    His name as the BJP Legislature Party leader was proposed by outgoing CM Sarbananda Sonowal and seconded by BJP state unit chief and MLA Ranjeet Kumar Dass and MLA Nandita Garlosa.

    In the 126-member Assam House, BJP has 60 MLAs. Its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) have nine and six MLAs respectively. Both parties backed Sarma as the CM. The swearing-in is expected on Monday.

    The BJP legislature party meeting was also attended by party’s central leaders Narendra Singh Tomar, BL Santhosh, Arun Singh and Vaijyanta Panda.

    Sarma, a five-time minister, was first elected to the Assembly from the Jalukbari seat in 2001 when he defeated Asom Gana Parishad biggie Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. He went on to win all the subsequent elections by huge margins of votes. 

    Noting his ability as a minister, efficiency to run a department by taking along all and his political wisdom, observers say Sarma should have become the Assam CM long back.

    He had his eyes fixed on the CM chair even during his life in the Congress but he fell out with his then mentor and former CM Tarun Gogoi following the emergence of the latter’s son Gaurav Gogoi in Assam’s political landscape. He left the party to wear saffron. 

    When Assam won the 2016 polls, the BJP took the lead in forming the non-Congress conglomerate of political parties called North East Democratic Alliance and made Sarma its convenor.

    He has not only contributed to the prowess of the BJP in Assam ever since his defection but hoisted the party’s flag across the Northeast.

    A master election strategist who is widely known for his political acumen, he was instrumental in scripting the BJP’s victory, not just in Assam but also in some states of the Northeast. The BJP also rules Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh and is a constituent of the ruling coalition in Nagaland and Meghalaya.

    Sarma had played a key role in toppling the Peoples’ Party of Arunachal government in 2016 when 33 of its 43 MLAs, led by CM Pema Khandu, had joined the BJP.

    He did not stop there. The next year, he helped the BJP form a government for the first time in Manipur. The BJP had won 22 seats as against the Congress’s 28 in the 60-member House but he managed to cobble up the numbers with his efforts, including engineering defections.

  • Sarbananda Sonowal tenders resignation, prior to election of new Assam CM

    By PTI
    GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday tendered his resignation to Governor Jagadish Mukhi prior to a meeting of the BJP Legislature Party which is expected to elect the next Chief Minister of the state, Raj Bhawan sources said.

    As is the tradition, the Governor asked Sonowal to continue in office till the formation of the new government.

    The party’s central leadership had summoned Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, both contenders for the top post, to New Delhi on Saturday for discussions on the formation of the next government in the state.

    The duo held a series of meetings, lasting for more than four hours, with BJP President J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, following which Sarma said the BJP’s legislature party is likely to meet on Sunday and all questions related to the formation of the next government will be answered there.

    The BJP had not announced the name of the Chief Minister before the polls and speculations are rife for the last one week on who would be the next Chief Minister of the state.

    Sonowal was projected as the Chief Ministerial candidate during the 2016 polls which the BJP had successfully won, making him the first BJP chief minister in the North East.

    The ruling BJP alliance is the first non-Congress government in the state to win an election for the second consecutive term.

    Of the 126 assembly seats in Assam, the ruling alliance has secured 75 seats with BJP winning 60 while its alliance partners AGP got nine seats and UPPL six.

  • WATCH | UP BJP MLA recommends cow urine to stop spread of COVID-19

    By ANI
    BALIA: As Covid-19 cases continue to surge across India, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Uttar Pradesh has claimed that drinking cow urine ‘gaumutra’ has protected him from coronavirus and also called on people to drink the same to defeat the deadly disease.

    Surendra Singh, BJP MLA from Bairia in Ballia district, put up a video of himself drinking cow urine. Singh demonstrated how exactly the cow urine should be taken. While appealing to people to consume cow urine, he himself gulped it down.

    He also recommended people to drink ‘cow urine’ with a glass of cold water.

    “I drink this every day in the morning and despite working for 18 hours a day for the people, I am healthy. I want to appeal to the people to include this in their everyday routine,” said Singh.

    He said two to three capfuls of it should be mixed in a glass of water and should then be consumed.

    “Don’t consume anything for half an hour,” he added.

    #WATCH | BJP MLA Surendra Singh in UP’s Ballia claimed drinking cow urine has protected him from coronavirus. He also recommended people to ‘drink cow urine with a glass of cold water’. (07.05)(Source: Self made video) pic.twitter.com/C9TYR4b5Xq
    — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) May 8, 2021

    The BJP MLA stated that whether or not he believes in science, he completely trusts cow urine.

    Singh also claimed that not just against Covid-19, cow urine was a “superpower” against many other diseases, especially heart diseases.

    This is not the first time that the BJP MLA has made it to the headlines. In October 2020, in the wake of the horrific Hathras rape case, Singh had claimed that incidents like rape can only be curbed by a “value-based” upbringing of girls.

    He had said that rape cases can be “stopped” if parents teach their daughters to behave “decently”.

    “Yeh ghatnaye keval sanskaar se ruk sakti hain, shashan aur talwar se rukne wala nahin hain. Sabhi mata-pita ka dharm hai ki woh apni jawan aur yuvti beti ko ek sanskari vaatavaran mein shaalin vyavhaar karne ka tareeka sikhana chahiye. (Such incidents can only be stopped by good values, and not by governance or sword. It is every parent’s dharma to raise their young daughters in a cultured environment and teach them to behave decently.),” said the Ballia MLA when asked to comment on the Hathras gang-rape case.

  • Post poll violence continues in Bengal as one killed, six injured; Governor hits out at Mamata government

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: One person was killed and six others were injured in a clash between the TMC and the BJP in West Bengal’s Birbhum district, police said on Saturday.

    The incident occurred at Muktinagar village under Dubrajpur assembly constituency when a group of people, allegedly BJP workers, tried to enter the houses of villagers on Friday night, a police officer said.

    “Members of the Trinamool Congress, who were feasting nearby, came to their rescue and they clashed with the BJP workers leading to the death of one and injuries to six others,” the police officer said.

    The injured are undergoing treatment at a hospital in Suri.

    The incident took place when a fact-finding team of the Union Home Ministry is visiting the state to take stock of post-poll violence.

    The house of another TMC activist was ransacked at a place near the village on Saturday morning.

    Meanwhile, the four-member team of the Union Home Ministry on Saturday visited several violence-ravaged places of the state.

    The team, led by an additional secretary of the ministry, flew to Birbhum district in the morning and from there they proceeded to several places, including Nanoor, which have been witnessing post-poll violence following the announcement of assembly poll results on May 2.

    Members of the team then went to Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district and visited places like Kendamari Jalpai and spoke to locals.

    The team, tasked with looking into reasons for the post-poll violence in West Bengal, had met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan on Friday.

    The ministry has sought a report from Dhankhar on the law and order situation in Bengal, in view of the violence that erupted in the state following the announcement of assembly election results.

    ALSO READ | Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee begins Assembly session with attacks on Centre, poll panel

    The team had visited Budge Budge and Satgachia in South 24 Parganas district on Friday.

    The panel had on Thursday, too, toured several places in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas, shortly after arriving here, and held meetings with the chief secretary, home secretary and the DGP at the secretariat, officials said.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that 16 people were killed in post-poll violence in the state.

    The BJP, on its part, alleged that TMC-backed goons have killed a number of its workers, attacked women members, vandalised houses and looted shops.

    Rejecting the charges, Banerjee maintained that clashes were taking place in those areas where the saffron party emerged victorious in the assembly polls.

    Dhankhar Saturday expressed displeasure at not being updated on the law and order situation in the state with regard to post poll violence by the chief secretary and director general of police (DGP).

    State Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay and DGP Virendra called on the governor at Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening being asked by him over the law and order situation in West Bengal.

    “Unfortunately both came without any paper or reports sought. Directed them to send the same without delay. In a sense disgusted with such stance,” Dhankhar tweeted after the officers met him.

    Maintaining that the home secretary has failed to apprise him on the law and order situation vis a vis the post-poll violence, Dhankhar had asked the chief secretary to see him.

    Dhankhar had tweeted earlier in the day that the home secretary did not forward reports of the DGP and commissioner of Kolkata Police in this regard.

    “Chief Secretary @MamataOfficial has been called upon to see me today before 7 PM as ACS Home @HomeBengal failed to impart status report on law and order regarding post poll violence,” the governor tweeted.

    “Such drifting of governance @MamataOfficial from constitutional prescriptions is unfortunate and cannot be overlooked. While the State passes through most severe post poll violence, there is just NO input to the constitutional head. This is least expected,” Dhankhar wrote.

    The West Bengal has been rocked by large scale violence after the bitterly fought state elections.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that 16 persons of different political parties have lost their lives in clashes after the end of the polls.

    A four-member team of the union home ministry, tasked with looking into reasons for the post-poll violence in Bengal, had met Dhankhar at Raj Bhawan.

  • My fight would continue as a soldier of BJP: Mukul Roy

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP vice president and its senior West Bengal leader Mukul Roy on Saturday rejected speculation that he may quit the party, asserting that his fight would continue as a “soldier of BJP to restore democracy in our state”.

    Once considered the second most powerful leader in the Trinamool Congress before he fell out with its head and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and joined the BJP in 2017, Roy took to Twitter to scotch speculation about his next political move.

    “My fight would continue as a soldier of BJP to restore democracy in our state. I would request everyone to put the concoctions and conjectures to rest. I am resolute in my political path,” he said.

    Roy has been elected as a BJP MLA during the recent state assembly polls in which the TMC scored a big win over its saffron rival.

    BJP president J P Nadda praised Roy’s statement, saying this is exemplary for every BJP worker and will guide everyone.

  • AIMIM or ISF no alternative; Muslims resposed faith in TMC to stop BJP juggernaut: Politicos

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Muslims in Bengal have largely exercised their franchise in favour of the TMC, putting to rest all speculations over their voting pattern, as results showed that the AIMIM and newly floated ISF have failed to curry favour with members of the community.

    Veteran TMC leader Siddiqullah Chowdhury stated that the minority community knew well that Banerjee was the only person who could stop BJP’s juggernaut in Bengal.

    Voters from the community were unsure of reposing faith in the Sanjukta Morcha — an alliance of the Left Front, Congress and peerzada Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF) — as ideologies of the three parties varied, he said.

    “At least 95 per cent of all Muslims in Bengal voted for Mamata Banerjee.

    My brothers and sisters from the community would have never voted for a communal force.

    They have clearly realised that Mamata didi is the only one that can fight communalism in West Bengal,” he told PTI.

    Chowdhury also asserted that Muslims had seen through BJP’s ploy to create divisions on religious lines.

    “I had said during my campaigns that Muslims will definitely prove more trustworthy than others.

    They will remain faithful to Mamata Banerjee,” the 71-year-old leader, who bagged the Monteswar seat with 1,05,460 votes, said.

    Senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan, on his part, contended that scepticism of some party members over formation of a coalition with the ISF cost the Sanjukta Morcha dearly.

    “People could not bank on us as the coalition did not shape up as expected, owing to non-acceptance of the ISF by some of our leaders.

    And that, in a way, led to our downfall,” Mannan told PTI.

    AIMIM’s Asadullah Sheikh, however, reasoned that the Muslims, scared and threatened by the BJP, found no better option than the TMC as they could not have relied on new parties that joined the fray.

    “Our Muslim brothers and sisters were tormented by BJP men.

    They felt threatened as BJP leaders kept harping on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).

    Apprehensive of an uncertain future, they could not rely on Sanjukta Morcha or us,” he pointed out.

    Sheikh also claimed that the TMC government did nothing to improve the living standards of the community over the past 10 years, but it still managed to pocket votes because “Muslims, more than anything else, wanted to stop the BJP from coming to power in Bengal”.

    “The voting pattern has been the same everywhere, be it Lalgola, Bhagawalgola, Berhampore, Malda, South 24 Parganas or Birbum or Uttar Dinajpur,” he explained.

    Political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty also felt that the community voted for the TMC to protect their identity.

    “It’s 100 per cent true that members of the minority community voted for the TMC in hordes.

    They feared losing their identities.

    The poll narrative around Citizenship Act and National Register of Citizens scared them,” Chakraborty told PTI.

    Interestingly, the Muslim representation in West Bengal assembly has dropped this time when compared to what it was in 2016, even as members of the community voted en masse for the Mamata Banerjee camp.

    The new assembly will be having 44 Muslim legislators – 43 of the TMC and one of the ISF — as against 59 during its last term.

    Apart from Chowdhury, some of the prominent Muslim legislators in the new Assembly will be TMC heavyweights Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan, Idris Ali and IPS-turned politician Humayun Kabir.

    The ISF had contested 26 seats this election, while the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party fielded candidates in seven constituencies.

  • Shiv Sena slams Modi govt for Central Vista project amid pandemic

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena on Saturday said that while smaller countries in the neighbourhood are offering help to India to tackle COVID-19, the Modi government is not even ready to stop the work of the multi-crore Central Vista project.

    The party also said that the system created in the past 70 years by previous prime ministers, including Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, has helped the country live through the tough times that it is facing today.

    “The UNICEF has expressed fear that there is a threat to the world from India due to the pace at which coronavirus is spreading in the country. It has also made an appeal that maximum number of countries should help India in the fight against COVID-19. Bangladesh has sent 10,000 Remdesivir vials, while Bhutan has sent medical oxygen. Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka have also offered help to ‘aatmanirbhar’ India,” the Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

    “In clear terms, India is surviving on the system created by Nehru-Gandhi. Many poor countries are offering help to India. Earlier, countries like Pakistan, Rwanda and Congo used to get help from others. But due to the wrong policies of today’s rulers, India is going through that situation now,” it said.

    But while poor countries are helping India in their own way, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not ready to stop the ambitious project of Central Vista worth Rs 20,000 crore, the Sena added.

    The party expressed surprise that nobody feels regret that on the one hand, India accepts aid from countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, while on the other, Modi is not ready to stop work on the multi-crore Central Vista project for construction of a new Parliament building and the house of the prime minister.

    The redevelopment project of the Central Vista – the power corridor of the country – envisages a new triangular Parliament building, a common Central Secretariat and the revamping of the three-km-long Rajpath from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate and new residences for the prime minister and the vice president.

    The Sena said that even as the world is battling a second wave of COVID-19, experts have predicted that the third wave will be more severe.

    But the ruling BJP is doing all it can to corner Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal even today.

    “A sensitive and a nationalist government would not have thought about the political pros and cons and set up a national panel of all main political parties to discuss ways to defeat the pandemic,” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said.

    BJP MP Subramanian Swamy has demanded that Union minister Nitin Gadkari be given the charge of the health ministry and this is a proof that the current union health ministry has been a complete failure, it added.

    India has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the last 10 days.

    Globally, one out of the five active patients is in India.

    In the last ten days, 36,110 deaths have occurred.

    Every hour, there are 150 COVID-19 deaths in the country. We have left USA and Brazil behind in terms of deaths due to virus. The world fears India now, the Sena said.

    According to it, several countries have stopped their citizens from travelling to India and our country is bearing the economic brunt of the pandemic.

    “The country is presently surviving thanks to the development works, projects set up by and the confidence given by the previous governments of PanditNehru, (Lal Bahadur) Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P V Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh,” it said.

    The prime ministerwill have to do a lot of hard work andthink of non-political nationalismto help the country come out of the pandemic, it said.

    On Friday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had attacked the Union government over the Central Vista project, terming it a “criminal wastage” and asked the dispensation to focus on people’s lives.

  • Assam’s chief issue: Himanta Biswa Sarma meets BJP leaders J P Nadda, Amit Shah in Delhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Amid speculation over the next chief minister of Assam, senior BJP leader from the state Himanta Biswa Sarma met party president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Saturday.

    Both Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Sarma were on Friday called to New Delhi by the BJP central leadership, apparently to discuss the leadership issue of the next government.

    Though both leaders from Assam reached Delhi on Saturday morning it was Sarma who reached Nadda’s residence to meet him and BJP general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh, sources said.

    They were later joined by Amit Shah.

    It is expected that Sonawal would also reach Nadda’s residence to meet the BJP’s top brass, where a decision on the next chief minister of Assam could be taken.

    ALSO READ | Who will take over the reigns in Assam: CM Sonowal or Himanta?

    It is immediately not known whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present in the meeting, they added.

    Sonowal, who belongs to Assam’s indigenous Sonowal-Kachari tribals, and Sarma, the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance, both are contenders for the top post of the Assam government.

    The BJP had not announced a chief ministerial candidate before the Assembly polls in Assam.

    In the 2016 Assembly polls, the BJP had projected Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate and won, forming the first saffron party government in the northeast.

    This time, the party has been maintaining that it would decide who would be the next chief minister of Assam after the elections.

    In the results announced for the 126-member Assam assembly last Sunday, the BJP won 60 seats while its alliance partners AGP got nine seats and UPPL six.