Guwahati: With state preparing for the third and final phase of polling on remaining four Lok Sabha seats in Western Assam and Guwahati, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is leaving no stone unturned to woo the electorates. He is addressing at least two public meetings everyday.
Knowing that Muslim voters are going to play the key role in most of these constituencies , Mr Sarma claims that half of the state’s Muslim electorate has voted for BJP in the seats where polling has been completed.
Explaining as to why Muslim voters have chosen to vote for BJP, Mr Sarma told reporters, “We did not expect all Muslim voters to vote for us but 50 percent of them have realised that whatever I have been saying is for their good.”
In the third phase, Barpeta constituency, where the electoral demography has been overhauled in the just concluded delimitation, the Bangladesh-origin Muslim voters will still have a say. BJP’s ally AGP, which has a foothold among the migrant Muslims, is contesting this seat.
Guwahati, also a third-phase seat, has a sizable Bangladesh-origin Muslim voters of more than 25 percent. Similarly Dhubri constituency, where Badruddin Ajmal is the sitting MP, has the highest concentration of Muslim voters, majority being Bangladesh-origin migrants, in the country. Here, too, BJP’s ally, AGP, is contesting this seat and Mr Sarma announced that he would campaign for AGP candidate.
It is significant Mr Sarma has been claiming that BJP and its allies would be winning 12 seats out of the 14 which if proven correct would be the largest number of seats that party has won so far in the state.
Ignoring his anti-Muslim remarks Mr Sarma also claims that with time the mindset of people (Bangladesh-origin Muslims) have changed in past 10 years and they have realized that BJP is not their enemy.
In the same breath Mr Sarma is also saying in public meetings that his government has adopted a policy where jobless families would be given priority in the state government jobs.
Announcing that interviews for 50,000 posts will be held in Assam this year, Mr Sarma said, “This time, we will give priority to those families where not even a single person has a job. We have undertaken a special policy so that two to three jobs do not go to one family. Applicants from those families, which do not have jobs, will get 10 marks extra during the interview for state govt jobs.” He also reminds that this year, the state govt has completed recruitment of one lakh youths without any irregularities.
“There should be at least one job in every family and that’s why these 10 extra marks,” Mr Sarma said, adding, this policy will be implemented in the recruitment of police personnel and forest department staff as well. Still, for those who do not get jobs, there will be Atmanirbhar Asom scheme under which unemployed youths will get Rs 2 lakh (Rs 1 lakh will be subsidy). “Small business can be started with this sum of Rs 2 lakh,” the chief minister said in a public meeting.
