PM Narendra Modi to kick off Lok Sabha poll campaign in Assam on January 4

GUWAHATI: BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off Lok Sabha polls campaign in Assam on January 4.

Dass, who completed two years as state president on Monday, said that the PM will address a public rally at Silchar in Barak valley.

"Silchar is one among other places in the country that has been selected by BJP’s central committee for PM’s first phase of campaign tour. We are grateful that our state has been selected in PM’s first campaign tour, and Modiji’s visit will significantly boost the morale of our grassroots workers for the Lok Sabha polls," Dass said.

BJP insiders said that PM’s kicking off the Lok Sabha election campaign from Silchar in the Bengali-majority Barak valley would help in boosting the morale of party workers in the backdrop of many excluded from the final NRC draft. The recently concluded panchayat polls showed that voters in Barak valley were polarized on religious lines with Hindus going for the BJP and Muslims overwhelmingly for the Congress. Barak valley has two Lok Sabha seats - Silchar under Congress and Karimganj under All India United Democratic Front.

Dass said that BJP’s organizational strength has increased manifold since 2014 parliamentary election when the party for the first time scripted success by winning seven out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

"In successive elections too BJP has been maintaining the victory graph intact including the recently concluded panchayat election where the saffron party won maximum of rural bodies’ seats. We are also fully prepared for the January 19 North Cachar Hills autonomous council election. During my two years tenure we won the Dhemaji assembly by-election, Karbi Anglong autonomous council polls and the panchayat polls too. In two years we could also significantly build-up grassroots units which will help the party for the Lok Sabha polls," Dass said.