Shiladitya Dev resigns from BJP; to contest as independent from Hojai

GUWAHATI: Denied a ticket to contest the Assam assembly elections from Hojai, MLA Shiladitya Dev today resigned from the BJP, and said he will contest the polls as an independent.

He became the second BJP sitting MLA to resign from the party today after Dilip Kr Paul of Silchar for being denied party tickets.

Dev turned up at Vajpayee Bhavan here this evening to tender his resignation only find an empty office as all leaders and party workers were at the Assam Engineering Institute ground here for the formal launch of the BJP’s election campaign. He finally met a party worker at the office with whom he submitted the resignation from primary membership of the ruling party.

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After tendering his resignation, Dev said he would contest from Hojai as independent because he could not afford to allow the Congress win the seat. “It would mean victory for (Badruddin)Ajmal if the Congress wins there,” he said.

Asserting that the BJP candidate Ramkrishna Ghosh could not win from Hojai, Dev alleged that Ghosh was a “land mafia and was a rape accused”.

“I’ll not join any other political party. I may have resigned from the BJP, but I’ll continue to abide by the Sangh’s ideology,” Dev, who had been a BJP worker nearly three decades, said, apologising to RSS leader of Assam Phani Sarma for his criticism in the past.

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He also accused the BJP of banking on minority votes to win seats in Lower Assam. “I was asked to keep my mouth shut for the last two months because if I open my mouth they would lose votes in Lower Assam,” Dev said.

He was apparently hinting at seats such as Patacharkuchi, Sarbhog etc from where senior BJP leaders are contesting.

He also clarified once again that he was neither with the Sarbananda Sonowal or Himanta Biswa Sarma lobby in the BJP.