BJP prepares Assam vision paper ahead of elections

GUWAHATI: Wizened from its electoral debacle in Bihar, the Bharatiya Janata Party is readying to approach Assam voters with a positive agenda of development. The party has started dialogue for a vision document ‘Assam Nirman’.

In addition, the BJP parliamentary board has projected Union Minister of State for Sports Sarbananda Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate in good time, to take on the octogenarian chief minister Tarun Gogoi. The party did not project any CM candidate in Bihar.

Sonowal was assigned the role of state unit president and chairman of election management committee in November last year. Soon after taking over, he started the process of drafting the vision document. This vision document which is expected to be completed by February will replace the manifesto.

“We are going to polls with developmental agenda and transparency,” BJP spokesperson Shiladitya Dev told ET. “We are clearly presenting before the voters our chief ministerial candidate and giving the people a roadmap of development in the form of Assam Nirman. In the entire vision document process people are involved. ”

The party has engaged Rajat Sethi, a public policy graduate from Harvard University, to assist the state unit in preparation of a vision document.

Engagement between BJP and civil society will be facilitated by a strong team of Harvard, MIT, IIT and IIM graduates from across the India.

Last week, Union Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman attended the Inaugural Dialogue on Economic Development and Infrastructure in Guwahati.