NEW DELHI, July 23 - Faced with growing dissent, the BJP central leadership has embarked on a multi-pronged strategy aimed at targeting the Tarun Gogoi Government, besides defusing the crisis in the Assam State unit.
Alarmed by the developments in the Assam unit of the BJP, the Central leadership has decided to go in for course corrections ahead of the polls, considered crucial for the BJP. Fresh plans are being drawn up which include a proposal to assign Union Youth Affairs and Sport Minister Sarbananda Sonowal to head the campaign committee in the Assembly polls in Assam, said sources. Sonowal�s involvement in the election is expected to bring in some dynamism to the BJP�s election campaign, the sources added.
Plans are also afoot to mount an aggressive campaign against the Congress Government in the State by targeting individual ministers and Congress members, including Tarun Gogoi, for its �lapses.� In the first such attack, the BJP yesterday targeted Himanta Biswa Sarma, describing him as a key suspect in the water scam of 2010.
However, even as the party is preparing to fire a series of salvos against the Tarun Gogoi Government, a section of the BJP State unit members, including a few MPs and MLAs, have raised the banner of revolt against the State unit president, Siddhartha Bhattacharyya, calling for a change of leadership ahead of the Assembly polls.
On Tuesday, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav, in a bid to defuse the crisis, held a crucial meeting with a section of the State BJP MPs, besides summoning Bhattacharyya to Delhi to sort things out.
Sources revealed that a group of MPs recently conveyed their displeasure over the style of functioning of the State president to Ram Madhav.
However, Bhattacharyya, while talking to this newspaper, dismissed the latest developments, claiming that such voices of dissent are normal in a party.
�Why should I be removed? What have I done? I have not lost any election after my appointment,� he said.
�With only nine months to go, why will the party remove me and, that too, without any valid reasons?� he asked.
The BJP State unit president said that he has been trying to wedge a division in the ruling Congress in Assam.
There is a gap of 10 per cent in the vote share between the Congress and the BJP in Assam and �we have to do something to change the scenario,� he said.
Bhattacharyya said that he was not averse to the idea of admitting some Congress leaders into the BJP ahead of the polls.
The obvious reference was to the reports of Himanta Biswa Sarma joining the party. But Bhattacharyya hinted that some leaders of the BJP were not quite enthusiastic about the idea and hence, the opposition to his leadership.
Meanwhile, the BJP general secretary has asked the State unit president to stay put in the national capital as the party is fine-tuning its Assam strategy.
