AIZAWL, March 26 - Sitting BJP MP from Assam, Ramen Deka today said that Mizoram would secure a Cabinet berth in the Central ministry if the BJP candidate is elected to the Lok Sabha.
During an interaction with BJP leaders at the party office here, the Lok Sabha member from the Mangaldoi constituency, said, �I would like to assure that if Mizoram elects the BJP candidate, he would be given a Cabinet berth.�
�I urge the people of Mizoram not to miss this opportunity of having a Union minister,� he added.
Dr C Silvera, who died in 2016, was the first and only Mizoram politician to be a member in the Union council of ministers. He was made the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in 1994.
Deka claimed that the BJP�s popularity is increasing across the country, and that the BJP and its allies are poised to form the next Government at the Centre.
�This is because the people of India are witness to the fact that the BJP during the last five years has done better than what the Congress did in 50 years. Baseless allegations have been levelled against the BJP because the Opposition has no genuine issues to attack our party,� he said.
The BJP is fielding veteran politician Nirupam Chakma for the Lok Sabha seat in Mizoram, the election to which will be held on April 11.
Even as the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill has emerged as a major electoral issue in Mizoram, the BJP candidate has downplayed it and said that he saw no danger in the Bill.
�The political parties do not talk about what is inside the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. The Bill has proposed amendment to a section where the provision was already there for naturalisation that a person has to reside in the country for 11 years. The only amendment is the reduction of 11 years to six years,� he said.
He also spoke on other aspects of the Bill including the date specified for granting citizenship to members of six communities �Hindus, Jains, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis � from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who came to India till December 31, 2014.
�In Mizoram, there will be no person to apply for such citizenship; so the fear of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is either politically motivated or fear without knowing the ground realities,� said Chakma.
�The Bill has already lapsed. If a new Bill comes up, we do not know in what form it will be,� he added.
