the once most trusted lieutenant of chief minister tarun gogoi himanta biswa sarma who is now in the bjp tells tois naresh mitra he is confident his party will get a majority in the assembly election next year q how do you think the bjp will perform in the next assembly election a people in the state are desperately looking for an alternative people are moving away from congress and its support base is being eroded on the other hand prime minister narendra modis popularity is on the rise for the people of assam bjp has now emerged as an alternative to congress i am confident bjp will get a comfortable majority q what inspired you to join bjp a from my childhood the partys ideology has been dear to me the congress doesnt allow that freedom it is a familycentric party now to me it is like a private limited company since 2012 i was having serious differences with the state leadership as well as rahul gandhi i met them several times in the past and aired my views what i disliked the most was the blue blood politics within the party q why did you fall out with chief minister tarun gogoi despite being one of his trusted lieutenants a after the partys third victory in the state there was a perceptible change in him gogoi he has stopped working for the people then came the elections but the performance of the party was sliding i have been insisting that we serve the people and win their trust but they wanted to continue in this style q will there be any more defections a people are leaving congress and it will continue on friday congress members of the north cachar hills autonomous council left their party and joined bjp the number of bjp members in the council increased to 18 on the same day two congress members supported the bjpbacked candidate for the post of the chief executive member in tiwa autonomous council in fact the downhill journey of congress has started it is not necessary that those who are leaving congress will join bjp q will there be defections to bjp from other parties a there are many from asom gana parishad who have joined or want to join bjp but the party is not encouraging them i want to make it clear that we are taking members from other parties only on merit i mean someone who can help the party with their capability q how is your relationship with regional parties a i feel we should maintain good relations with parties representing various tribal groups they are indigenous people and we should be very helpful to them we have helped an indigenous leader from the tiwa jatiya oikya manch become the chief executive member of the tiwa autonomous council this support will carry a positive message to tribal communities across the state q is bjp strong enough to fight alone in the next assembly polls