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BJP sweeps Upper Assam; Congress wins few seats in Lower Assam, Barak Valley
The ruling BJP swept almost all of the seats in Upper Assam where the party secured wins in 33 of the 35 seats with just one each being bagged by Congress and its ally Raijor Dal
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday secured a historic win in Assam after winning in 82 of the 90 seats it contested in.
The ruling BJP swept almost all of the seats in Upper Assam where the party secured wins in 33 of the 35 seats with just one each being bagged by Congress and its ally Raijor Dal.
The same trend continued in central Assam and the three hill districts where BJP along with its allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) bagged almost all seats ceding just three seats, two to All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and one by Raijor Dal.
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“This is an unprecedented victory in Assam’s electoral politics. We don’t know if such success can be repeated or overcome in coming years,” chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated in Guwahati.
The BJP managed to secure some wins in Lower Assam and Barak Valley as well along with its ally Bodoland Peoples Front, which bagged 10 seats in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) region.
On the other hand, the Congress failed to make inroads this time with several key candidates losing their own seats.
Among them were Congress state president Gaurav Gogoi who lost from Jorhat and leader of opposition Debabrata Saikia who failed to retain Nazira. The party won just the Naoboicha seat in Upper Assam.
President of Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Lurinjyoti Gogoi, which is part of the opposition alliance, failed to win in Khowang.
Congress managed to secure almost all its wins in the Lower Assam and Barak Valley region in seats.
“I wouldn’t like to paint the election results on religious lines. But it’s a fact that only one of the Congress candidates who are winning is a non-Muslim,” said Sarma.
“The outcome of the assembly election has come as a surprise for us but we accept the peoples verdict. We congratulate all our winning candidates and hope they will play the role of a constructive opposition with sincerity,” said chairman of Congress’s media department, Bedabrata Bora.
“The fact that Congress wasn’t able to secure wins in seats which were its stronghold shows that it will be very difficult for the party to revive its fortunes in Assam,” said Kaustubh Deka, professor of political science in Dibrugarh University
BJP secured over 37.81% of the total votes, which is around 5% more than 2021. On the other hand, Congress saw a marginal increase from its 2021 figure of 29.67% to 29.84%.
