GUWAHATI: Soon after BJP president Amit Shah put the brakes on Himanta Biswa Sarma 's Delhi ambitions, the party strongman hit the road on Saturday to campaign for ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) at Kaliabor - the seat his former mentor-turned-bete noire Tarun Gogoi's son Gaurav Gogoi is contesting for re-election as a Congress candidate.For now, Himanta has put his own desire to contest the Tezpur Lok Sabha seat on the back-burner, acceding to the party central leadership's decision to go by its own instincts rather than that of the state-level leadership. Himanta said he does not wish to discuss the matter any further since he has already accepted the decision of the party president. "The party has entrusted us with the responsibility to get maximum seats in the region," he added.Regional parties have always played an important role in the region's politics and have often emerged stronger than national parties. The BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (Neda), which Himanta had steered, had started out strong in 2016. Himanta was also the brains behind the growing footprint of BJP and Neda in the northeast since then - expanding from Assam to Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland and, finally, Mizoram. By now, ties between the constituent parties have grown weak. Barring AGP, Bodoland People's Front and Nationalist Democratic People's Party, all Neda partners have either chosen to contest the Lok Sabha election on their own or quit the alliance. The BJP central leadership wants Himanta to strengthen the saffron party and revive Neda's prospects in the region.Himanta is confident he can deliver. "We believe BJP and Neda will win 19-20 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the region (including Sikkim)," he said. There is a tight-rope walk ahead though. Given the tenuous ties with AGP, just stitched back in place, for instance, BJP has decided that no election banners and posters will carry the lotus symbol in seats where AGP is contesting. "We don't want to confuse voters by putting our symbol on AGP's posters. Even posters featuring Narendra Modi won't have the lotus symbol in these constituencies but the elephant (AGP's symbol)," Sarma said.Kicking off the campaign on behalf of AGP for the Kaliabor seat at Bokakhat, Himanta said, "BJP workers have to labour harder than AGP workers to win this seat. Our partner (in 2016 assembly election), Ganashakti, will also work with us. Our fight is not against Congress but it is a fight to ensure that the indigenous Assamese stand with their heads held high." Kaliabor has a sizeable Muslim voter base, which can swing the election outcome if they vote as one bloc. With this in mind, Himanta appealed to the voters of the constituency to "remain united" so no one can deny the AGP candidate, Moni Madhab Mahanta, a victory. He is the younger brother of AGP working president and water resources minister Keshab Mahanta.Immediately after Kaliabor, Himanta moved to neighbouring Jorhat constituency to campaign for party's new face Topon Kumar Gogoi, a minister, and then to Dibrugarh.

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