Cong scores impressive hat-trick in Assam

The Congress has scored an impressive hat trick in Assam, bystorming back to power with a thumping mandate for a third time in succession, falsifying predictions of many political pundits of a hung assembly. The opposition camp has been almost demolished.

Tarun Gogoi is set to remain as Chief Minister, only the second time (after Bimala Prasad Chaliha in the 1960s) someone has made it to a third term. The Congress has got 79 seats in the 126-member House, compared to 53 in the outgoing assembly. However, two of its senior leaders and cabinet ministers in the outgoing government, Nurzamal Sarkar and Bharat Narah, lost.

The dream of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Assam’s main opposition party, to form a ‘grand alliance’ of all opposition parties to form a non-Congress government crumbled today. The AGP’s own tally was reduced from 24 to 10. Party president Chandra Mohan Patowary lost from Dharmapur, as did former CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta from Samaguri. However, Mahanta had also contested from Barhampur and won from there. AGP also loses its ‘main opposition’ tag, as it now comes down to the fourth position. All India United Democratic Front is now the second-largest party, followed by Boro Peoples’ Front.

When Gogoi assumed office in 2001 of the insurgency-ridden state, he didn’t wait for development to follow peace. He said he was making development a pre-condition for peace and worked at it. He continued with his approach after winning a second term in 2006 and persuaded or coerced almost all major militant groups, be it the United Liberation Front of Asom or the National Democratic Front of Bodoland to abjure violence and come for talks. Despite an anti-incumbency mood and a series of corruption allegations against the Congress government in the run up to the polls, it is now clear the Congress’ achievement in bringing back peace to some extent and ability to offer stability made voters go with the party. A fragmented, disoriented and issueless opposition camp made things easier.

“I have been saying it all through out that we are going to form the next government comfortably. My calculations never prove wrong. People have elected us for our work. We worked for all sections of people,” said a relaxed Gogoi after the results started pouring in.

Adding: “The opposition didn’t have any ideology or principle. They could not perform their duty as opposition parties, so they have got the answer.”

Gogoi also indicated the party was willing to accommodate the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in the new government. BPF, a coalition partner in the outgoing government, fought the elections alone in 2011 and has won 14 seats.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which many had predicted would stage an impressive performance in the polls, as it won four of the eight seats it had contested in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, got a thrashing. Its 10 seats were halved. State party president Ranjit Dutta had to embrace personal defeat from the Bihali seat.

The only opposition party whose performance was close to expectations was the Muslim-dominated All India United Democratic Front. It raised its tally from 10 to 16, but will not be a crucial factor in a hung house, as it had hoped.