BJP targets 40 out of 47 seats in Assam’s 1st phase election

Guwahati, Mar 17: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has targeted to win 40 of the 47 assembly seats that would be going to polls in the first phase on March 27 in this northeastern state where the party had come to power for the first time in 2016 elections winning 62 seats.

Most of the 47 seats are from Upper Assam and the North Bank of Brahmaputra that would witness the polling on March 27.

The BJP had won 27 seats in 2016 followed by the Congress (9), Asom Gana Parisahd (8), and two seats were won by the AIUDF of Badruddin Ajmal besides one independent was elected.

This time the BJP has concentrated on 40 seats and put all its resources to achieve the target. The BJP seems to be in mood to snatch some of the seats held by the Congress and has launched an intensive campaign involving all its star campaigners including the Prime Minister and some of the Union Ministers.

The Congress had won the nine seats in 2016 including Rupahi, Sorupathar, Titabor, Mariani, Nazira, Sivsagar, Doomdooma, Golaghat and Samaguri. Ajanta Neog, who won the Golaghat seat as a Congress candidate is contesting the same seat this time as a BJP candidate.

Following the demise of former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Tarun Gogoi, the Congress has lost its grip on Titabor seat while the prospects of Congress legislative party leader Debabrata Saikia who is contesting from Nazira appear to be dim. However, the Congress party is way behind of the BJP as far as electioneering in Assam is concerned.

The Congress is hoping to capitalize on the anti-CAA unrest generated in the state. But they would prove wrong as the anti-CAA agitation in Assam has already died down and there are no traces of it in Upper Assam at present. The entire anti-CAA agitation had disappeared into a vacuum, it seems. And above all, the party decision to enter into an election pact with Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF has indirectly helped the BJP.

The strongholds of Congress and AIUDF in these 47 constituencies are Dhekiajuli, Kaliabor, Sootea, Dhing, Batadroba, Rupahiha, and Samaguri. The 47 seats comprise some LACs of Sonitpur, Nagaon, Lakhimpur, Biswanath Chariali, and entire Upper Assam from Bokakhat to Sadiya. The second and third phases of the poll have many seats that are considered strongholds of the Congress and the AIUDF.