Once termed as a party of Hindi heartland, the BJP alone succeeded in winning 60 seats, whereas it had only five legislators in the last Assembly Elections
NJ Thakuria
Prime Minister Narendra Modi finds a reason to smile, as Assam welcomes BJP to rule at Dispur. The electorate of the State, where the saffron party won seven seats in the last Parliamentary elections, also gave thumps up to it with alliances an absolute majority.
Assam witnessed a relatively peaceful election for its 126 member State Legislative Assembly with two-phase polling on April 4 and11, where altogether 1,064 candidates tried their lucks. For the first time, two powerful and resourceful national political parties with a few regional parties joined in the electoral battles, where the voters exercised their franchises with as high as 83 percent turnout (total number of Assam voters stands at 1.92 crore) to overthrow the ruling Congress.
The BJP with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) won a convincing victory with 86 legislators, where the Congress was restricted to only 26 seats (the party won 78 seats in 2011 Assembly elections). The electorate with the high influence of popular Modi wave not only ended the era of Tarun Gogoi’s uninterrupted 15 years rule, but also defeated a number of Congress veterans.
Once termed as a party of Hindi heartland, urban centred and upper cast, the BJP alone succeeded in winning 60 seats, where as it had only five legislators got won in the last Assembly Elections. Energised as the BJP’s alliance partner, the AGP won 14 seats (10 seats in 2011 polls) and the BPF succeeded in 12 seats (same with last Assembly polls, though it was with Congress that time).
With the Congress, the other losing party was the Badruddin Ajmal led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which could win succeeded only in 13 constituencies in contrast to 18 seats in 2011 polls. A known sympathiser to Bangladeshi migrants in Assam, Moulana Ajmal, who is a Parliamentarian from Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, too lost from South Salmara constituency.
Some of the important winners include State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Assembly speaker Pranab Gogoi, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal, AGP president Atul Bora, former Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, former All Assam Students’ Union president Sankar Prasad Roy etc. All seats in greater Guwahati were won by BJP candidates namely Atul Bora (senior) from Dispur constituency, Siddhartha Bhattacharya from Guwahati East, Ramendra Narayan Kalita from Guwahati West and Himanta Biswa Sarma from Jalukbari constituency.
Among prominent losers from Congress include Paban Singh Ghatowar, Pradyut Bordoloi, Gautam Roy, Sarat Barkataki, Bharat Chandra Narah, Tanka Bahadur Rai, Prithibi Majhi, Bishmita Gogoi, Ajit Singh, Siddique Ahmed, Pranati Phukan etc.
PM Modi, while reacting to the poll verdicts, thanked the people of Assam for helping the saffron party be victorious and assured all possible help and cooperation to the new government at Dispur. On the other hand, the BJP president Amit Shah commented that his party had gone ahead with the outcomes to make Bharat Congress Mukt in the coming days.
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