SILCHAR, Dec 20 - At a time when a host of former ministers and senior Congress leaders are switching over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP fold in the run-up to the 2021 Assembly elections, All India Mahila Congress president and former Silchar MP Susmita Dev today said that the BJP needs Congress leaders for winning seats in the electoral battle. Talking to reporters at her residence on Sunday, Dev took a jibe at the BJP saying �the way BJP leadership is welcoming the Congress leaders and former ministers into the party, one would easily assume a certain leadership crisis in the camp, which is why they need to induct people from the opposition to win seats for them in the elections.�
Further, on the likelihood of Congress leaders like former minister Ajanta Neog, Lakhipur MLA Rajdeep Goala and former Borkhola MLA Dr Rumi Nath joining the BJP soon, the former MP said, �Those going to the BJP are opportunists and power mongers. They profited from Congress party and now when election is approaching, they have decided to switch camps. Those leaving the Congress now might leave the BJP some years later as well. The BJP might use and discard them. They will not get the respect and the space which the Congress party had bestowed upon them for all these years.�
Sharpening her attack on Finance Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, Dev said, �The BJP today is the BJP(H) and is certainly no more the party which former Union minister Kabindra Purakayastha had toiled hard for.�
On the other hand, the All India Mahila Congress chief said she has a lot of questions to pose before Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari and Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, ahead of their arrival here on December 25 to unveil a statue of former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at the junction point of the East West Corridor here, which has been a signature project of the late Prime Minister.
Dev said, �Ignoring the geological complications, the BJP kept blaming that it is the Congress and former Chief Minister late Tarun Gogoi who lacked interest in completing the mega project. But, what is stopping the BJP from accomplishing the project? Can we now say that Chief Minister Sonowal does not wish to see the project reach the finish line?�
Moreover, asked about her views on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the former parliamentarian said that the silence of the Chief Minister on the fate of the all-important citizens� register is mysterious.
�We are demanding that instead of pushing for a fresh drive, there must be appropriate rectifications on the NRC,� she maintained.
