After Rajdeep Roy announced Aminul Haque as BJP's candidate from Sonai, Ranjeet Dass says "No ticket is confirmed"

BJP’s Assam President Ranjeet Dass is in Silchar. He will tour across Barak Valley throughout the week, and many believe, this is the trip that will decide who gets a ticket from BJP and who fails to secure one. Dass today interacted with the media after a meeting with his party members.

Recently, at an event, Silchar MP and general secretary of Assam BJP, Rajdeep Roy publically announced that deputy speaker, Aminul Haque Laskar will again contest on BJP’s ticket from Sonai. The announcement came as a shock to many, as the district president of BJP, Kaushik Rai was absent from that event.

Later, when Barak Bulletin reached out to Rai, he said, “I don’t know what MP Rajdeep Roy said, but the candidates are decided by the Central Committee and announced by them.”

This exposed infighting within BJP. Yesterday, party’s executive member, Narayan Choudhury alleged that his son was beaten by MLA Dilip Paul’s brother exposing another fight within the party. Ranjit Dass was asked about the tiff going on within BJP. “See, these are not infighting. When you have a big family, it often happens that the daughter and the father do not think alike. But they still remain a family agreeing to disagree,” said Dass.

While he dodged or rather played down the question about infighting, he was clear when asked about tickets. “BJP will conduct four surveys, three of them will be conducted by the Central Committee and one by the State Committee. The candidates who will emerge as the most popular in those surveys will get the tickets.”

About Rajdeep Roy announcing Aminul Haque Laskar as the candidate from Sonai, Dass said, “The State President, the NEDA Chief or any other leader cannot give tickets to candidates. Tickets will be decided on the basis of the surveys we conduct.”

Former Minister Gautam Roy who has recently joined the BJP made several public statements confirming his candidature from Katigorah. “By Roy saying, it won’t happen. BJP’s stand is clear, the candidates will be decided on the basis of the surveys,” he reiterated.

Though he did confirm Aminul Haque’s ticket, the party’s state president said that the “Sonai Model” will be followed in other parts of the state as well. “Following Sonai Model we will field minority candidates in constituencies where we feel the necessity,” said Dass.

About Silchar, he kept Dilip Paul’s future in BJP hanging. However, he was upbeat about the party’s chances in the constituency and said the margin could be as big as 60,000 votes.