Unlike the national outcome, the Bharatiya Janata Party has performed well in Assam. The rightist party, which had an electoral alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad gained significantly in the state, though the regional party could not show the impressive result. The BJP succeeded in returning one sitting and two former MPs and also a first timer from Assam, which has 14 seats in Lok Sabha. Two former union ministers Bijoya Chakraborty and Kabindra Purkayastha regained the prestigious Guwahati and Silchar seats respectively.
The ruling Congress, which had won the Guwahati seat in 2004 general election, tried its best to retain it and fielded a sitting MLA (Robin Bordoloi), but failed, where Ms Chakraborty of BJP emerged victorious.
On the other hand, Purkayastha defeated a Congress heavyweight Santosh Mohan Dev, who was the sitting MP and also a union minister.
The arrogant politician of Barak Valley was of course predicted by the political analysts of the state to get defeated. Amazingly Dev came out with the third position in Silchar constituency, after the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) president Badruddin Ajmal gained the second spot.
Ajmal however won the Dhubri seat by a huge margin of votes against the Congress candidate and also the sitting MP Anowar Hussain. Thus finally the newborn party, which fought the general election for the first time, has reached the House of lawmakers. The party, with a minority Muslim vote bank, fielded candidates in a number of constituencies and almost everywhere it worked as a spoilsport for the Congress. The AUDF candidates virtually helped the AGP-BJP combine increase its tally. The sitting BJP MP from Nagaon, Rajen Gohain has succeeded once again defeating Anil Raja of Congress. Of course, he was a front-runner in the constituency since the beginning. The state BJP president Ramen Deka surprised many analysts winning the Mangaldoi seat. The first-timer Deka defeated the senior Congress leader Madhav Rajbonshi.
For the Congress, the major surprise was the defeat of Moni Kumar Subba in Tezpur constituency. The lottery baron-turned-politician, who was one of the richest candidates from the northeast, lost to AGP candidate Joseph Toppo.
Subba had won from the prestigious constituency for three times and eying for the same once again. His identity of origin (allegedly Subba is a Nepali fugitive) was discussed widely in media and public forums. Even the Central Bureau of Investigation had started an investigation on the issue and a case is still pending in the Supreme Court of India. The sitting MP from the Kokrajhar, Sansuma Khungur Bwismuthiary of Bodoland Peoples Front retained the seat winning with a margin of over 2,00,000 votes. The Congress on the other hand succeeded in returning the sitting MPs BK Handique (also a union minister) from Jorhat, Dip Gogoi from Koliabor, Biren Singh Engti from Diphu and Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya from Karimganj seat.
Three other Congress leaders, who have received entries to the Lower House of the Parliament, include Paban Singh Ghatowar from Dibrugarh parliamentary constituency, who defeated AGP candidate Sarbananda Sonowal, Ranee Narah from Lakhimpur, who defeated the sitting AGP MP Arun Sharma and Ismail Hussain from Barpeta constituency, who defeated AGP candidate Bhupen Rai. The state Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of course expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the poll.
Addressing the scribes on May 16, soon after the result came out, Gogoi admitted that he did not expect much better result this time. “But I would have been happy, had we retained the Guwahati seat,” Gogoi said. Moreover, for the first time, Gogoi admitted that besides BJP and AGP, AUDF was also a factor in the poll. The two-time Chief Minister is understood to maintain personal enmity towards the AUDF chief Ajmal. On the other hand, Ajmal declared that doors were open for him to join the UPA government at New Delhi.
