Sonowal said he would not disappoint the people of Assam and would work with every community of the state. It also emerged as the second biggest party in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is part of the ruling coalition.
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The BJP also benefited from internal squabbles in the Congress state unit which prompted Sarma to leave the Congress and join the BJP. “The SP has a strong base and strong cadre”, Shah said, adding that he believes that the saffron party will win the polls. The Congress, which was dominating the national political discourse, has become totally marginalised even as the BJP has taken the centre-stage.
Shah said he considered SP as the BJP’s main adversary because of its larger support base than Mayawati’s BSP. Earlier during the day, Sonowal was unanimously elected as the leader of the BJP Legislature Party. “I can say this with certainty, that Assam will grow leaps and bounds”.
Prime Minsiter Narendra Modi on Tuesday thanked the people for giving Sarbananda Sonowal an opportunity to serve Assam and assured them that he would work hard to transform the state.
“As a ruling party and a government, we may be doing far better job”.
Mr. Modi said the Union Government was working on the principle of cooperative federalism, and wanted to give States maximum strength to enable them to progress. People of Assam will look forward to seeing the changes under the leadership of Mr. Sarbanada Sonowal. But people barely know of any (schemes). “But now it is time to implement, mere slogans won’t help”, Rio told IANS.
While a couple of Union ministers had antagonised AIADMK supremo J. Jayalalithaa no end – by calling her “inaccessible”, “most corrupt” – the BJP government, after the results were declared, sought to mend fences. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues are scheduled to attend the event. He will have to deliver both for himself and his party.
On the flip side, the BJP has had to tick off some of its own MPs for remarks that created controversies and sought to take away focus from governance. Sonowal also appreciated the huge sacrifices and hard work of foot soldiers of the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The council of ministers chose to reduce the number of vehicles in the chief minister’s convoy to the bare minimum and to do away with traffic restrictions put in place during the movement of the chief minister’s cavalcade to ensure that the public is not inconvenienced. Sarbananda Sonowal, a minister at the Centre, is the CM-designate in Assam. The last was in February this year.
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The Congress party in reaction said that it has raised the voice of farmers against the land acquisition bill and this has forced BJP to step back. And there are indications already that the ruling party in Tamil Nadu may soften its position in the Rajya Sabha when the Bill comes up for discussion in the next session. However, infiltration had come down “after an agreement with Bangladesh”, said a communique from ETV citing Sonowal.
