NEW DELHI: Union minister for development of northeastern region Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said the BJP’s manifesto for the forthcoming Assam assembly elections would ensure inclusive growth of the state while emphasising on its security, development and maintaining its cultural identity.
The minister said in Guwahati: “BJP’s poll manifesto will ensure inclusive growth of Assam with focus on its security, development and cultural identity.”
On a day BJP president released the party’s ‘Sankalp Patra’, Singh said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, consistent and diligent efforts were made to pull Assam out from the long nightmare of insurgency and violence into which previous Congress governments had thrown the state.
“Now that development activities have been rolled out on a fast track, we are seeking a second term (in the state) to consolidate the gains of the last term and to embark on a quantum jump of growth,” said Singh, who is also the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
He said that Assam is the gateway to the Northeast and, therefore, it would play a leading role in the future growth of India.
Polling in Assam will be held for 47 seats on March 27 in the first phase, while 39 and 40 constituencies will go to polls on April 1 and April 6 respectively.
Singh said the BJP leaders are not seasonal campaigners like those in the Congress, who come here only during election time and go straight to tea gardens for a Bollywood type photo-shoot and pose as sympathisers of tea garden workers.
“We have been here on the ground and among the people 24×7 for 365 days for the last seven years ever since Narendra Modi took over as prime minister”, he said.
Singh, who is the party’s co-incharge for Assam, said the BJP constantly interacts with the common people and it even did so when it was not in power in the state.
“We have consistently worked hard, day and night, to win the confidence of the people,” he said.
“Even when we did not have our government in Assam, the BJP karyakartas would set up relief camps in times of flood or any other calamity”, he said, adding that “we have shared the concerns of the common people and also celebrated their joys”.
(With agency inputs)