On the eve of the final day for nomination filing, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited Silchar on March 22 to steady the party’s rank-and-file and energise the BJP’s campaign in the Barak Valley. The visit aimed to contain unrest after ticket allocations and to present a united front ahead of nominations and the campaign proper.
Sarma held closed-door meetings with party candidates and three sitting MLAs who were denied tickets — Dipayan Chakraborty, Nihar Ranjan Das and Mihir Kanti Shome — and later told reporters that “all is well” within the BJP in Cachar. He projected confidence in the party’s prospects, saying, “We will win 10 of the 13 seats in Barak Valley. And if AGP wins in Sonai, we will have 11 seats.”
Beyond reassurance, the visit functioned as a political recalibration: by engaging directly with stakeholders, the leadership signalled an intent to prevent individual grievances from turning into wider electoral problems. Sarma also reframed the contest across much of Barak as one of margins rather than outcomes, underscoring a campaign strategy focused on expanding vote shares where the BJP is already competitive.
Sarma mounted a robust defence of Silchar candidate Dr. Rajdeep Roy, dismissing social media criticism as temporary and pointing to Roy’s parliamentary interventions, including during the No Confidence Motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as proof of his credentials. Internal assessments named Kamalakhya De Purkayastha a frontrunner in Katigorah, while Cabinet Minister and Lakhipur MLA Kaushik Rai and Ramkrishnanagar’s Bijoy Malakar were held up as candidates who could secure substantial victory margins rather than merely fend off challenges.
At the constituency level, Sarma revisited the 2021 defeat of Gautam Roy in Katigorah to question opposition narratives about voter rejection, suggesting past losses stemmed from internal shifts. He addressed the valley’s complex electoral demography by saying the BJP draws support from sections of indigenous and “nationalist” Muslim voters and rejecting the notion of a consolidated “Miya factor” in the region.
With senior leaders including Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national president Nitin Navin, other central figures and party veterans such as former MLA Dilip Kumar Paul slated to campaign, the party’s Barak strategy appears to be entering an intensified phase. Sarma’s Silchar visit was widely viewed as a pre-nomination reset intended to convert internal turbulence into a public projection of cohesion and electoral confidence.
Meanwhile, ahead of the visit, Dholai MLA Nihar Ranjan Das — who had resigned after being denied a ticket — announced he would not contest as an independent and would instead work for the BJP’s victory, saying he would “continue to work as a committed BJP worker to ensure the party’s win.”
Original Source: https://assamtribune.com/assam/assam-cm-visits-silchar-to-steady-bjp-ship-in-barak-valley-amid-ticket-row-1609718
Category: Assam,Featured
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Publish Date: 2026-03-22 20:29:00
