The supporters of sitting Lahowal MLA Rituparna Baruah on Thursday slammed the BJP for reportedly denying him the ticket to fight the forthcoming Assam Assembly elections.
Although the BJP has yet to release the list of poll candidates, speculations are doing the round that the Baruah is likely to be replaced by an AGP candidate.
Baruah’s supporters took to the streets at Lahowal in upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district demanding a ticket for the MLA.
The BJP members and Baruah supporters said, “We want a ticket for Rituparna Baruah in Lahowal and if the party denies him a ticket, we will resign from the BJP.”
In the 2016 Assembly elections, BJP and its ally AGP had grabbed all seven seats in Dibrugarh districts.
Ritupurna Baruah, incumbent MLA of Lahowal is seeking a ticket from his seat but the party has reportedly decided to field Chabua MLA Binod Hazarika from Lahowal.
“In Lahowal we would not accept Binod Hazarika. We want Rituparna Baruah to contest from Lahowal seat. It is a conspiracy to deprive ticket to incumbent MLA Baruah,” said another BJP supporter.
In the 2016 election, Rituparna Baruah defeated Congress candidate Prithibi Majhi by a margin of 19, 5999 votes.