As the followers of Assam politics were waiting for the rolling out the names of the candidates from the party headquarters, the biggest news that took everyone by surprise was that of the last minute cancellation of Himanta Biswa Sarma's candidature from Tezpur.
Dr Sharma being the tallest leader of the North east India, he literally self selected to contest from Tezpur and did all the ground work and then came the shocking the news that he was asked to concentrate on the party matters and ensure victory of 21 of the 25 seats the North east has.
This incident has been views as a political sabotage as Dr sharma has made up his mind to go to New Delhi and be an important union minister for two and half year before returning to Assam as Chief Minister in 2021 replacing Sarbananda Sonowal.
But according to party insiders, a shocked Himanta Biswa Sharma was quietly instructed by the Party President Amit Shah not to contest in the Tezpur Lok Sabh a seat but to concentrate his massive network for the party organisation.
This has been viewed as upset as Dr Sharma was a sure shot winner of Tezpur sets and already his supporters and party MLAs were talking of the victory margins. Notably in the Tezpur Lok Sabha constituency, not only all the MLAs belong to the BJP but even Panchayats are also in the BJP pocket.
It is suspected that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has also played a part in this decision as he informed the party bosses that Mr Sarma is indispensable for the state administration as he is running crucial PWD and Finance department and without him government will not be able to focus on development works.
The party bosses bought the argument and asked Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma to stay away, upsetting all his calculation.
In this round of politics, clearly Dr Sharma is the loser and Mr Sonowal is the winner Not only he can bask on the hard work of Dr Sharma but also stopped him from becoming an union Ministers while at the same time making him indispensable" said a party top source.
"This is typical use and throw policy of BJP. They will continue to exploit the vast resource of Dr Sharma but shall not offer the plum position of an union Minister or the Chie Minister. At the end of the day Dr Sharma will remain as a minister of a state" said the source close to Himanta camp.
Meanwhile speculations are rife that Dr Sharma might be rehabilitated as the Deputy Chief Ministership post. However the Assam bureaucrats are very happy that Dr Shrma will stay back in Assam. "The state PWD ill come to a halt within 15 days" warned a Chief Minister of the department pointing towards Dr Sharma's work culture.
