New Delhi: Scripting history, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday stormed to power in Assam, bagging a government in the north-east for the first time and dethroning the Congress.
The results of the Assembly elections saw the end of 15 years of Congress rule in Assam where it had scored a hat-trick in the last elections under Tarun Gogoi.
With Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate, the BJP and its allies — Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodo People’s Front (BPF) — scored a landslide victory.
In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the BJP combination won 86 seats with the Congress alliance willing 26.
The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) alliance, led by Badruddin Ajmal, won 13 seats.
Considered a key man behind BJP’s grand show in the north-eastern state of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Congress strongman and Gogoi-baiter, on Thursday said, people of the state have voted for development and protection of their identity.
Sarma, a protege-turned-rival of outgoing chief minister Gogoi, said the veteran Congressman was ruling “by default”, but people have decisively voted in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the hope that he will resolve the issues of their identity and usher in development in Assam.
“People of Assam are going through a crisis of identity and crisis of development. Tarun Gogoi was ruling by default. People have decisively voted in favour of Narendra Modi as he has promised to resolve their identity issue and bring in development. So, all hope is on Modi and Amit Shah,” Sarma, who joined the BJP in August last year and was made the party’s convener for the Assembly polls, said.
Meanwhile, the pro-talks faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has said the new government should resolve the state’s “identity crisis on a priority basis”.
The faction, which is in peace negotiations with the central government since 2010, has also sought that the new government should complete the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which it says is “the only feasible solution to the illegal migrants issue, which has led to much bloodshed in the state”.
“Among the major expectations are the faster update of the NRC, which makes things clear about who are the illegal migrants in the state. Another expectation is that the government should certainly help in sealing an accord between the ULFA and the Indian government,” Sashadhar Chaudhury, a senior cadre of the ULFA faction that favours talks with the government, said.
Referring to the 15 years of Gogoi-led Congress rule in the state, Chaudhury, who was formerly part of the underground movement, said: “People wanted change and to get rid of the Bangladeshi-based politics in Assam, which the new government should take care of.”
