BJP's two-pronged approach in Assam ahead of high-stakes Assembly polls

BJP blends welfare outreach to women with identity politics in Assam, as Himanta Biswa Sarma eyes a second term amid rising concerns over polarisation

On the afternoon of April 5, the AB Vajpayee Bhavan, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Assam unit headquarters in Guwahati’s Beltola area, bustled with young men and women as they went about their tasks of keeping the party’s poll machinery in shape for the voting in the state’s 126 seats on April 9. 

Six kilometres away, the Congress’ older and more modest office in Bhangagarh had a sedate atmosphere. Groups of middle-aged men sat in groups holding aimless discussions about the dismal prospects of their party in an election that increasingly looks one-sided. 

Beyond the easy conclusion that Assam’s Assembly polls this time are highly polarised on communal lines is the BJP’s deft strategy of turning its campaign into a “women-driven election”. This might not have translated into giving more opportunities to women candidates, but the focus of its promises are women, who have shown up in larger numbers than their male counterparts at the party’s meetings. 

Of the total 722 candidates in the fray, only 58 are women. Of these, the BJP has fielded seven women candidates in the 91 seats it is contesting, while the Congress has fielded 14 women in the 114 seats it is contesting. 

The difference, however, has been in ground outreach. Barely a week before the Election Commission announced the poll schedule, incumbent Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma transferred ₹9,000 to four million women under the Orunodoi scheme on March 10 — a total amount of ₹3,600 crore. This consolidated amount was four months of regular assistance of ₹1,250 and a special Bohag Bihu bonus of ₹4,000. 

Sarma, 57, has cultivated for himself the image of the state’s favourite ‘mama’ (maternal uncle), akin to former Madhya Pradesh CM and current Union minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. He returns from his high-energy daily campaigns with bruises and swellings on his arms, as women reach out to him to thank him for the Orunodoi scheme, launched in 2018. The BJP has promised to increase the monthly allowance under the scheme to ₹3,000 in a phased manner over the next five years and also to provide two free cooking gas cylinders each year. 

While the Congress has fielded its more experienced spokespersons at press conferences and for television debates, the BJP has picked its ‘GenZ’ members, such as Priyanka Tamuli, who in her late 20s has represented the party on mainstream Hindi news channels and Doordarshan. Married to an engineer from Rajasthan, Tamuli speaks about how the BJP has brought Assam, and rest of the Northeast closer to the Indian mainland with Prime Minister Narendra Modi visiting the seven northeastern states more than sixty times in the last dozen years. Party strategists concede that projecting Tamuli, and other younger women, is part of the BJP's sustained strategy in Assam given that women have a strong voice in households and also in the context of the Women’s Reservation Act, which the party has piloted. 

But the outreach to women is closely linked to the Sangh Parivar's efforts at reshaping the cultural context of Assam. Over the past week, the Sangh Parivar pushed for, as it has over the last two decades, the celebration of Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti. Women were at the forefront of these celebrations. Tamuli and women workers speak forcefully about the “threat of infiltrators”, an allusion to Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam who comprise almost 30 per of its population. 

Congress spokesperson Aman Wadud believes the BJP, as well as the larger Sangh Parivar, are trying to polarise a society that is much more integrated. “There have not been any communal riots in the last ten years, which is evidence of the inherent strength of Assamese society,” he says. 

Others, such as senior journalist Paresh Malakar, who edits Northeast Now, worries of a polarised Assamese society in the years to come under sustained “villainisation” of a particular community. 

Wadud adds that the Manmohan Singh-led United Progress Alliance (UPA) central government deported more illegal migrants in its tenure than the Narendra Modi-led Centre has since 2014. 

The BJP campaign, however, has already taken roots. Communities, including members of Assamese-speaking Muslims, talk about voting for the BJP to keep Bengali-speaking Muslims at bay.

 

Cong spreading falsehood on my wife’s ‘passports’, properties; will take legal steps, says Assam CM 

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said that he and his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sharma will take legal action against Congress leader Pawan Khera for making “false allegations” that she has multiple passports and holds properties in Dubai, which were not mentioned in his poll affidavit. 

Sarma also claimed that there were ‘serious discrepancies’ in the documents shared by Khera, which suggests that it was a “crude and poorly executed attempt at digital manipulation”. 

Just days before Assam goes to vote on April 9, Khera alleged at a press conference in New Delhi that Sharma holds three passports of the UAE, Antigua-Barbuda and Egypt. 

Responding to the charges, Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi said that holding multiple passports and failure to disclose properties is a grave and criminal offence.   -PTI