GUWAHATI: The Assembly election results on Monday will decide whether the BJP-led NDA can hold its fort in Assam or whether the Congress-led six-party Opposition front can upset the NDA applecart.
The BJP went to the April 9 polls eyeing a third straight term in power. The Congress, which lost several of its leaders to the BJP over a period of time, is hoping to return to the saddle after a gap of 10 years.
The exit polls predicted over 90 of the 126 seats for the NDA, thus brightening the BJP’s hopes of a hat-trick in power. The Congress, however, dismissed the numbers as highly 'exaggerated', alleging that the BJP came up with such figures through the agencies to put pressure on the officials and the candidates of Opposition parties on the vote-counting day.
Assam had recorded a nearly 86% voter turnout, unprecedented in the state. This high turnout made the Opposition parties believe people had voted for a change.
“People voted with the hope of a ‘New Bor-Asom’ (greater/unified Assam) and new leadership,” state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi had stated. However, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed, “…Our people voted with one clear resolve — to protect our land, our identity, and our culture from illegal infiltration and demographic aggression…”
The BJP contested the polls on the planks of identity politics and development agenda, warning voters that its defeat would lead to renewed political and land aggression by the “illegal” Miyas (Bengali-speaking Muslims). A series of eviction drives, targeting particularly illegal Miya settlers, had preceded the polls.
The NDA wooed voters by promising to drive out the “infiltrators” already identified, sustain the state’s development trajectory, maintain peace, and solve the perennial problem of floods.
On the other hand, the Congress had tried to warm up to voters, flagging alleged corruption by the Chief Minister and the NDA government.
The Congress’s biggest promise was that it would ensure justice for singer-musician Zubeen Garg within 100 days of coming to power. He died while swimming in the sea in Singapore in September last year, and there is still a demand in Assam for justice for the larger-than-life music icon.
The Assam results may impact the elections in ethnic violence-hit Manipur next year, and in Nagaland, Tripura, and Meghalaya in 2028. The BJP had opened the gateway to the Northeast by winning Assam in 2016, even as the Congress kept losing its ground in the region in the subsequent years.
The BJP fought the 2016 and 2021 elections under former Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s leadership. This marked the first time that Sarma led his party into an election.
The high-voltage election campaign was marked by controversies. Congress leader Pawan Khera had claimed that Sarma’s wife possessed passports of three countries, owned luxury properties in Dubai, and had huge investments in the United States. Later, a case was registered in Guwahati based on an FIR she lodged. The Supreme Court recently granted anticipatory bail to Khera.
Altogether 722 candidates, including 59 women, were in the fray. The prominent candidates include Sarma, Gogoi, ministers Pijush Hazarika, Jayanta Malla Baruah (both BJP), leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia (Congress), All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) president Atul Bora, Assam Jatiya Parishad president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) president Pramod Boro. AIUDF and UPPL went solo in the elections.
The Congress had fielded the highest number of candidates at 99, followed by BJP 90, AIUDF 30, AGP 26 and UPPL 19.
There were altogether 2,50,54,463 eligible voters – 1,25,31,552 males, 1,25,22,593 females, and 318 from the transgender community.
Voting was held at 31,486 polling stations – 3,716 of them managed by women and 23 by persons with disabilities. The Dalgaon and the Amri constituencies had the highest and the lowest numbers of voters at 3,17,110 and 1,00,494, respectively.