HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, June 18: Ranjit Dutta, a senior BJP politician who emerged victorious in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections from the state’s Sonitpur parliamentary seat, tendered his resignation as an MLA on Tuesday.
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Dutta served as an MLA for the Biswanath district’s Behali assembly seat.
Dutta, who submitted his resignation to the speaker of the legislature, reminisced about his time as a BJP MLA in Assam when the party was in opposition.
“I won from Behali in the 2001 state assembly polls. We were sitting in opposition when Congress took power in the state and defeated the Asom Gana Parishad. At the time, the BJP had just eight MLAs, and I had been appointed deputy leader of the party in the assembly,” he told reporters.
Dutta claimed that there were frequently heated discussions on a variety of topics pertaining to human development between the opposition and treasure benches. That dignity, though, was always preserved on the floor of the assembly.
The BJP performed somewhat better in the 2006 assembly elections, and the party was represented by ten MLAs.
Ranjit Dutta was appointed as a minister in the Sarbananda Sonowal-led Assam government in 2016, the year the BJP took power in the state for the first time. But when the party retained in 2021, he was not appointed to the council of ministers.
Pallab Lochan Das, the sitting BJP MP from Sonitpur, did not run in the recently held Lok Sabha elections; instead, the party fielded Dutta in that seat.
“I have served as an MLA for a number of years in my political career. I spent some time today in the assembly for the final time before turning in my resignation,” Dutta stated.
He also specifically mentioned late BJP leader Bimalangshu Roy’s role as a leader of the party in the assembly.
Dutta said, “I have learned so many things from Roy. He was our leader in 2001.”
