Kanad Purkayastha to Chair BJP Manifesto Panel for Silchar Municipal Corporation Election; Sushmita Dev Named Member

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Cachar district unit has appointed Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev as a member of its eight-member Manifesto Committee for the upcoming Silchar Municipal Corporation Election 2026.

The committee was constituted through an office order dated August 18, following a resolution passed at the BJP Cachar Core Committee meeting on August 17.

Rajya Sabha MP Kanad Purkayastha has been appointed chairman of the committee, while BJP leaders and elected representatives Dr Rajdeep Roy, Rajdeep Goala and former MLA Dipayan Chakraborty have also been named as members.

The other members are Dr Chandan Dey and Bimolendu Roy. Gopal Kanti Roy has been appointed Member Secretary.

The committee has been tasked with preparing the BJP’s manifesto for the forthcoming Silchar Municipal Corporation election. The party order was issued by Amitabh Rai, General Secretary of the BJP’s Cachar district unit.

The inclusion of Sushmita Dev is notable as she recently joined the BJP after leaving the Trinamool Congress (TMC). She was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP candidate from West Bengal.

The 2026 election will be the first-ever Silchar Municipal Corporation election, marking a major change in the city’s urban administration. Silchar was a Town Committee from 1882 and became a Municipal Board in 1893 with 28 wards. Under the Assam Municipal Corporation Act, 2022, it was upgraded to a Municipal Corporation with 42 wards in 2024-25.

The election will also restore an elected civic body after nearly six years. The last Silchar Municipal Board election was held in February 2015, with its term ending in 2020. The city has since been administered without elected councillors. Following prolonged legal delays over ward delimitation, the Gauhati High Court directed the government and State Election Commission to hold the polls.