NEW DELHI, Jan 6 � Predicting that the next government in Assam may be non-Congress, BJP national president Nitin Gadkari today asserted that no party in the State can wrest Dispur without the support of BJP.
�The next government in Assam would be a non-Congress government and without the support of the BJP, nobody can form the government,� claimed the BJP chief ahead of the party�s national executive at Guwahati.
Interacting with a group of newsmen from the State, Gadkari promised that the next government in the State would expose the misdeeds and corruption of the State�s Congress government. The BJP has taken Assam election very seriously, he added.
With the Congress on the back-foot over corruption, the BJP seems all set to launch its anti-corruption campaign immediately. The party is releasing a report on �Corruption in North-east� drafted by a former MP, who was in the region for about a week on a stock taking mission.
The BJP chief said that there was rampant corruption not in Assam but also in neighbouring Congress-ruled Arunachal Pradesh, pointing to the manner in which hydro power projects were sanctioned.
The Congress Government in Assam has shown that it is not far behind the UPA Government in corruption and may have even gone a few steps ahead in these matters, commented the BJP president, assuring of actions against corruption in Assam, if a non-Congress government takes over power.
About the political scenario, Gadkari stressed on the need for the Opposition to form a common anti-Congress plank in Assam to defeat the ruling clich�. The mood among the people in Assam is for a change. And BJP�s main aim is to defeat the Congress, he stated.
�The BJP is willing to take along all such anti-Congress parties with it to defeat the Congress,� he said, spelling out his Party�s position.
About AGP, he said it was up to the regional party to take a stand, though informal discussions occasionally take place at various levels.
The AGP and BJP had parted ways last year, after the regional party�s highest policy making body opted to snap ties fearing erosion of its minority support base.
Meanwhile, in a subtle change of stand, the BJP president said that his party does see the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh from a religious perspective. �We do not think it is a religious issue. Those who are foreigners must be thrown out,� he clarified.
The assertion is a significant shift in BJP�s stand, given that the Saffron Party has been calling for detection and deportation of only Muslim migrants, adopting a soft stand towards the Hindu migrants, who it claims have migrated due to religious persecution at the hands of hostile governments in Bangladesh.
The party has been advocating for granting of refugee status to the Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, as opposed to the stand taken by AGP and All Assam Students� Union that illegal aliens irrespective of religious background should be deported.
Meanwhile, the BJP president plans to unveil a development agenda for the State and has ordered preparation of a vision document for the State.
Describing the floods as the bane of the State, he opined that one solution could be diversion of the River Brahmaputra to other areas for all-round benefit. He said the crop pattern in the State needed to be changed to boost agriculture production.
Staying on the development plank, he said the State needs technical and management institutes, medical and engineering colleges in great numbers to improve the employment opportunities.
Gadkari identified the health sector in Assam as one of the problem areas, stating that health facilities in the State were poor.
The BJP president proposed setting of health centres and hospitals at the block and district level on PPP mode. The State Government should provide medical equipment, infrastructure facilities and pay salaries. The patients may be charged a nominal fees, he outlined.
