Indian PM Modi to kick-start election campaign in Assam on Tuesday

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Assam on Tuesday on a whirlwind tour to sound the BJP’s polls bugle in Assam.

Dilip Kumar Sharmabdnews24.com
Published : 18 Jan 2016, 03:21 PM
Updated : 18 Jan 2016, 03:21 PM

He is scheduled to attend a rally of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in the western Assam town of Kokrajhar on Tuesdaymorning.

The BPF is a tribal party, with which the BJP sealed an election deal in Delhi on Sunday night.

Modi will also address the BJP youth wing’s Yuva Mahashakti Samaroh in Guwahati later in the day.

Of the four Indian states that will go to assembly elections this year, only in Assam does the BJP stand a realistic chance of a shot at power.

The term of the Assam assembly ends on June 5, and elections are expected in March or April, possibly along with West Bengal, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi inspects the Indo-Bangladesh international border at Ramraikutti border outpost in Dhubri last year. File Photo.

But ahead of the prime minister’s visit, the ruling Congress in the state has gone on an offensive by taking potshots at Modi through a poster campaign.

“Aahise sapunor sadagor gagan fola bhashonere pratisruti diboloi… tenga aam punor besiboloi?” taunts one of the posters bearing a caricature of Modi.

These Assamese phrases can be roughly translated as “The dream merchant is coming to pierce the sky with lofty promises… He will try to sell sour mangoes once again?”

Another poster asks: “Development or destruction? The PM tours the world even as inflation rises.”

The Congress has also mocked Modi’s ‘fetish for signature suits’, as a banner reads: “Your Rs 15 lakh did not come because he purchased his suit-boots.”

Ripun Bora

It was in reference to Modi’s pre-poll promise ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that if voted to power the BJP would bring all the black money kept in foreign banks and that every citizen would roughly get Rs 1.5 million if all the ill-gotten money could be recovered.

The Congress has put up 900 such hoardings across the state with various slogans mocking Modi.

Chagrined by such a ‘vicious campaign’, the BJP has been saying the Congress has crossed all limits of political decency by demeaning the prime minister.

They said the attack on Modi was a manifestation of the Congress’s unease over its impending electoral fate.

BJP state General secretary Bijay Gupta said by putting up such ‘nasty hoardings’, the Congress had insulted the prime minister of the country.

Badruddin Azamal

“If the Congress thinks that the 'Modi Magic' will not work, why is it so scared of his visit? Why put up posters, hoardings targeting Modi,” Gupta questioned.

The BJP's Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh claimed that the “Modi Magic” was working in the same way across the country as before.

“Parties like the Congress and the AIUDF are scared of Modi and that is why they are levelling false allegations against him,” he said.

Assam Congress spokesperson Ripun Bora, however, claimed that his party was merely trying to “expose the false promises” of the prime minister and was not at all worried about Modi’s visit.

“It’s now well known that Modi lies. None of the promises that Modi made to the people of Assam before the parliamentary election have been fulfilled so far. Modi has promised a Rs 1000 crore development package for the BTAD after the BPF's alliance with the BJP. But he will not keep it,” Bora said.

Mahendra Singh

Rubbishing Bora’s allegations, Mahendra Singh claimed that efforts were on to fulfil all the promises Modi made before the 2014 elections.

He said even infiltration from Bangladesh had been halted as was promised by Modi.

“Today, the entire world discusses Modi's work culture,” the BJP leader claimed, insisting that his party would form a government in Assam despite all the opposition from the Congress and the AIUDF.