Former Congress stalwart Rana Goswami, who recently jumped ship to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Assam was on Saturday appointed the state vice president of the party.

Assam BJP president Bhabesh Kalita made the appointment via an official notification. "Shirjut Rana Goswami is hereby appointed as the state vice president of Bharatiya Janta Party, Assam Pradesh," the notification read.

This comes after Rana Goswami dealt a blow to the state Congress unit by joining the BJP on February 29 at a formal event. Rana Goswami, who had previously tendered his resignation initially from the position he held in the party and subsequently from the primary membership of the Congress on Wednesday (February 28), joined the BJP. He was welcomed to the party by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Amid reports of the BJP likely announcing its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha polls today, Bhabesh Kalita addressing the media in Guwahati said, "We are eagerly awaiting the election dates to be announced by the election commission. We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts. In the meantime, we have set up a management committee to look after the election affairs of the party at a state level. In addition, we have also directed a committee to be set up in every Lok Sabha constituency which will come up in a day or two. We are putting all our efforts and are just awaiting the announcement of the dates. Meanwhile, we have sent the draft list of candidates to the central leadership and we hope they will make a final call soon."

Asked wheather the BJP will keep up with the tradition of allotting the Guwahati seat to a female candidate, the state president said, "I cannot comment on who the candidate is, but rest assured, it will be a woman candidate. 100 per cent, a woman candidate, however, I cannot mention a name as the list has not been officially released. You can ask me about her after the final call is made and I will be happy to answer."

"In Assam, the BJP is contesting in 14 seats, same as our allies UPPL and AGP. We are an alliance and we will fight together. We have good expectations from the people. The work done by the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister and the government as a whole at all levels, we are confident of securing all 14 seats," said Kalita on the seat sharing between the alliance in the state.

Meanwhile, the Assam BJP president mentioned that the party takes every level of election, from the lowest to the highest, very seriously. All workers jump in and get to work without any complaints, he said.