Will start work to win 100 seats in next assembly polls, says Himanta

GUWAHATI: Assam finance minister and BJP's key man in the northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday said BJP and its allies in the state will start work to win at least 100 seats in the next assembly election in 2021 they are set to give two more MPs from the region, this time in the Rajya Sabha.
The NDA has won 18 of the 24 seats in the NE region in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election. In Assam, BJP has own nine of the 14 seats.
The two certain Rajya Sabha seats from Assam will now give a boost to NDA's strength in the Upper House where it is in a minority at present. Due to lack of numbers, the NDA could not push the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Rajya Sabha last February despite passing it in the Lok Sabha where it was in a majority. In the 245-member Rajya Sabha, NDA and its supporters have 99 members, which is 24 short of majority mark of 123. By 2020-21, the NDA is expected to have control in the Upper House as well.
Sarma's statement came soon after BJP and its ally, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), looked all set to win both the Rajya Sabha seats with no opposition candidate in fray on the last date of filing of nomination on Tuesday.
The only two candidates for the seats are former Union minister Birendra Prasad Baishya of AGP and BJP's Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, who was not given a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha election this time. The opposition Congress and AIUDF did not field any candidate because they could not find a consensus candidate who was non-political and opposed to the citizenship bill. Even if the joint opposition had fielded its candidate, their strength in the legislative assembly is not enough to bring them victory.
"There is no relevance in any claims by the opposition. They don't have the numbers," Sarma said.
He added, "In the 2021 assembly election in Assam, BJP and our allies will aim to win at least 100 seats out of 126. We will start working towards this goal with more development work. Our preparations for the assembly election will start immediately after the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 30."
Conceding defeat without contesting, Congress president and Rajya Sabha MP Ripun Bora said, "We tried our level best to field a common candidate of all the Opposition parties because Congress on its own cannot win. We talked with them, including AIUDF. We wanted to put a neutral candidate no belonging to any party but a litterateur, who has strong opinion against the Citizenship bill. But we did not get any response and so on principle we decided not to field any candidate."
The terms of three more seats from Assam in the Rajya Sabha - two currently held by Congress and one by BPF - will end in April next year and the terms of two seats both currently held by Congress will be over in April, 2022. BJP has no members in the Upper House from the state at present.