Taking charge as the Assam BJP president for another term, Ranjeet Kumar Dass on Saturday said the party would retain power following the 2021 Assembly elections.

Dass was on Saturday elected unopposed as the Assam BJP president to lead the party for the next three years while the Assembly election is just a year from now.

Dass, a two-time Sorbhog MLA, was re-elected party chief following the much-awaited expansion of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s cabinet. The moves aim to ready the Assam BJP for the 2021 polls.

At a meeting at Srimanta Madhabdev Auditorium at Panjabari here, Union petroleum and gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the election observer for the state president post, announced Dass as the next president.

Pradhan said as only Dass had filed nomination for the post, he has been elected unopposed. He said under Dass’s leadership, the party would be able to perform better in the Assembly polls.

The 1965-born Dass is the party’s key leader in lower Assam. He joined the BJP in 1992 and was first elected to the Assembly in 2011. Dass remained the Speaker for about seven months before being elected as the state president on December 25, 2016, succeeding Sonowal.

Sonowal, along with convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (Neda) Himanta Biswa Sarma, ministers, MLAs, former party presidents and senior party office-bearers attended the meeting.

Dass thanked the 42 lakh party members and emphasised that more party workers would be recruited.

He urged the party workers to continue to work for the party like the never-ending undercurrents of a sea and face challenges. He thanked them for maintaining restraint during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protest which turned violent in many areas of the state.

Dass said the BJP had not cheated the people of Assam.

“So far we have fulfilled 70 per cent of our promises. The Opposition parties are worried that if we fulfil the remaining 30 per cent of promises, they will become helpless,” he added. Talking to reporters after the meeting Dass said the party has announced 2020 as the “non-stop working year”. “We have prepared a schedule of numerous activities till December,” he said.

Sonowal, who preceded Dass as the party president, congratulated him for increasing the number of party members to 42 lakh.