Assam CM visits Silchar to steady BJP ship in Barak valley amid ticket row

Silchar, Mar 22: On the eve of the final day of nomination filing, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Silchar to reinforce organisational cohesion and build momentum for the BJP’s campaign in the Barak Valley.

The visit came amid signs of unease following ticket allocations, with developments such as the exit of Dholai MLA Nihar Ranjan Das and social media backlash over the candidature of Dr Rajdeep Roy for the Silchar LAC seat drawing attention.

Upon arriving in Silchar, the Chief Minister held closed-door meetings with party candidates and three sitting MLAs, Dipayan Chakraborty, Nihar Ranjan Das and Mihir Kanti Shome, who were denied tickets. He later addressed the media, striking a composed note and asserting that “all is well” within the BJP in Cachar.

“We will win 10 of the 13 seats in Barak Valley. And if AGP wins in Sonai, we will have 11 seats,” he said.

However, beneath the reassurance lay a broader political recalibration ahead of nominations. By directly engaging with stakeholders and addressing concerns early, the leadership signalled its intent to ensure that individual grievances do not translate into electoral complications.

More significantly, Sarma reframed the electoral narrative, arguing that across much of Barak, the contest is no longer about who wins, but by what margin.

In reinforcing candidate legitimacy, he went beyond routine endorsements. Sarma mounted a strong defence of Silchar candidate Rajdeep Roy, dismissing criticism around his candidature as temporary noise and highlighting his parliamentary performance, including interventions during the No Confidence Motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In Katigorah, Kamalakhya De Purkayastha was projected as a frontrunner based on internal assessments, while leaders such as Cabinet Minister and Lakhipur MLA Kaushik Rai were positioned in contests defined not by vulnerability but by the scale of victory. Ramkrishnanagar’s Bijoy Malakar was also singled out as a potential high-margin winner.

The Chief Minister also sought to counter opposition narratives at the constituency level, particularly in Katigorah, where he revisited the 2021 defeat of Gautam Roy to raise questions around political loyalty, framing past setbacks as a result of internal shifts rather than voter rejection.

Addressing the valley’s complex electoral demography, Sarma struck a calibrated note, asserting that the BJP continues to draw support from sections of indigenous and “nationalist” Muslim voters, while rejecting the idea of any consolidated “Miya factor” in the region.

With Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Navin, other central leaders, and Sarma himself, along with party veterans like former MLA Dilip Kumar Paul, set to campaign, the BJP’s Barak strategy appears to be entering an intensified phase.

Sarma’s visit to Silchar is being seen as a pre-nomination reset, aimed at converting internal turbulence into a projection of cohesion, control, and electoral confidence.

Even as he acknowledged pockets of contest for the BJP in seats such as South Karimganj, Algapur-Katlicherra and parts of North Karimganj, the broader message remained clear: in Barak Valley, the BJP is not bracing for a challenge, but assessing the scale of its potential victory.

Meanwhile, ahead of Sarma's visit, Dholai MLA Nihar Ranjan Das, who had recently resigned from the BJP after being denied a party ticket, announced that he will not contest as an independent candidate and will instead work for the BJP’s victory.

“Taking into account the sentiments of my well-wishers and the larger interest of the party, I have decided not to file my nomination as an Independent. I will continue to work as a committed BJP worker to ensure the party’s win,” Das said.