The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday declared Assam minister Pallab Lochan Das as its candidate for the Tezpur Lok Sabha constituency for the forthcoming polls.
The suspense over the party’s candidate for the Tezpur seat ended as the BJP settled for the Assam minister after the name of Assam finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was rejected by party president Amit Shah as ‘he wanted Sarma to focus on maximizing BJP’s seats from the Northeast’.
“Although Sarma’s name was proposed by the state BJP, we want him to focus on strengthening NEDA besides being an important minister at the Assam cabinet,” Shah had tweeted about the candidature of Sarma.
Pallab Lochan Das is currently holding the position of minister of state (independent) in the Labour welfare, Tea tribe welfare department of the Assam government besides being MoS Education.
The Tezpur seat was held by senior BJP legislator Ram Prasad Sarmah who, after reports of Himanta contesting the seat, resigned from the primary membership of the party opposing the decision.
The Congress has fielded former Assam bureaucrat MGVK Bhanu from the Tezpur seat.
