AGARTALA: Campaigning in Cooch Behar ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday presented the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s record in Assam and Tripura as a blueprint for West Bengal, with border security, merit-based employment, and welfare delivery forming the core of his pitch against the Trinamool Congress government.
Sarma’s address covered a wide range of issues, but border management emerged as the sharpest point of attack. “Mamata Banerjee doesn’t let us stop Bangladeshis from entering the country. It is very important to fence the border, especially in West Bengal,” he said, adding that infiltration had already been brought under control in Assam and Tripura under BJP administrations.
He proposed electric fencing along the Bangladesh borders of all three states and accused the TMC of allowing demographic change to take place for electoral purposes.
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On governance, Sarma contrasted what he described as Assam’s track record on jobs with the situation in West Bengal. He claimed that his government had provided two lakh jobs in five years based purely on merit and promised to fill five lakh vacancies in West Bengal within one year without corruption if voted to power.
He also outlined welfare commitments, citing free ration distribution including lentils, sugar, and salt in Assam, and a five lakh rupee health coverage scheme, as examples of what West Bengal residents stood to gain under a BJP government.
Dismissing TMC claims that the BJP would ban meat consumption if elected, Sarma pointed to the absence of any such ban in Assam. He also indicated that a Uniform Civil Code would be a legislative priority.
“We will get 100 seats in Assam and 200 in West Bengal,” he said, closing his address on a confident note about the party’s election prospects.