The BJP has spearheaded the NDA’s way well beyond the majority mark as the saffron party is leading in 76 assembly seats against Congress’ 41 out of a total of 126 seats in Assam. While incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state Finance and Health Minister and BJP’s star campaigner Himanta Biswa Sarma are leading from Majauli and Jalukbari constituencies, incarcerated anti-CAA activist Akhil Gogoi is leading in Sibsagar seat, suggests initial trends of Assam assembly election results.
The majority mark in Assam is 64. The BJP is looking to create history in the state by becoming the only non-Congress government to win consecutive terms. However, for the saffron party, this election was very different from the other states as Assam was the only place where it was fighting to retain power. Leading the alliance with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) and the Gana Suraksha Party (GSP), which mainly represent the Bodo and Sarania communities respectively, the BJP faced stiff competition from two corners this year. The first being the Congress-led Grand Alliance of which the minority-backed All India United Democratic Front, the Bodoland People’s Front, which had control over the Bodoland Territorial Council for nearly two decades, and marginal players such as Anchalik Gana Morcha, Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI and CPI (Marxist-Leninist).
The other was from two newly formed regional parties — the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal which emerged out of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests that swept Assam in 2019.
