The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is gearing up for the Assam Assembly polls due early next year. The party claims to have launched a massive offensive against the ruling Congress dispensation by way of sit in and street protests. As part of the strategy, claimed by party functionaries as a strategy to 'expose rampant corruption' in the state, BJP activists would gherao the Assam Assembly on November 9. In an exclusive interview with MAIL TODAY, party incharge for Assam Mahendra Singh said for the first time ever in the history of state politics, the BJP had got such overwhelming support that it managed to built its organisation from the level of individual booths up to the state level. On the other hand, the BJP functionary also claimed that the issue of illegal Bangladeshi migrants into the state would be a burning issue in the coming electoral battle.

At every booth the party has constituted a committee of 45-50 activists along with respective coordinators, incharges and BLA-2 level functionaries. Corresponding organisational functionaries had been appointed at the level of individual panchayats, blocks, and districts. "The level of support that we have got from the people of Assam can be gauged from the fact that after our call for dharna and sit in at the block level nearly 2,000-2,500 people participated at each of the 219 blocks in Assam.

At the district level nearly 5,000-10,000 people participated. People who had been afraid earlier of carrying banner and staff of the BJP are coming out in the open to support us," said Singh. "At the recently concluded activists' conclave at Dibrugarh on November 27, which was attended by party chief Amit Shah, 50,000 activists turned up from just 5 districts. We had aimed at enlistsing 24-25 lakh members through our membership drive, but Assam gave us 28 lakh members. Singh claimed that Assam had been destabilised by the Congress and its policies. After a decade of Congress rule, Singh claimed that 35-40% villages were such where electricity infrastructure was still missing and state had stagnated at a meagre 13-14% urbanisation.



