Guwahati:

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the BJP will contest 11 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Assam, while leaving three seats for its allies Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL).

Sarma, who is also the convenor of the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), said that among other northeastern states, it will support the NDPP candidate in Nagaland, while details in other states are being worked out.

AGP will contest from Barpeta and Dhubri, while UPPL will field its candidate in Kokrajhar. Mr Sarma said the allies would support each other’s candidates in all the 14 constituencies of Assam.

“Yesterday, BJP state chief Bhabesh Kalita and I had a meeting with our national president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and our national general secretary BL Santosh, in which seat sharing was discussed,” he said at a press conference in the party. Headquarters here.

He said that UPPL had requested for the Kokrajhar seat, to which the BJP agreed.

“AGP, which has its base across the state, wanted more seats. But I conveyed to them the request of our central leadership to contest from two seats this time and they obliged us,” the CM said.

He said, “Out of total 14 seats, we are hopeful of winning 11 seats. We will fight with full force on the other three seats also.”

The BJP has nine MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha from the state, while the AGP and UPPL have no representation.

Congress has three seats, AIUDF has one seat, while one seat is with an independent candidate.

Sarma said the BJP’s parliamentary board will finalize his party’s list of candidates, adding that no “report card” is taken from sitting MPs and the candidates are decided through “open discussions”.

He said some sitting MPs have expressed their desire not to contest elections and to devote more time to party activities, and hence, some new faces can be expected.

Asked about the alleged tussle between Congress MPs Pradyut Bordoloi and Gaurav Gogoi over the Nagaon constituency, Sarma said, “The Nagaon seat has been fragmented due to delimitation. It is for the party to decide who contests from there for the Congress.” To decide.” Bordoloi currently holds the Nagaon seat, while Gogoi represents neighboring Kaliabor, a large part of which has become part of the newly created Kaziranga constituency after delimitation.

On projecting Nagaon as a minority-dominated seat, the CM said, “It should not be said like this. It is the birthplace of Srimant Sankardev (Vaishnav saint). I do not want to defame the place which is sacred for us.” ,

“We should not brand a place as majority or minority dominated,” he said.

Sarma said, BJP will support the candidate of its ally Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) in Nagaland.

NEDA convener said discussions are going on in Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)