Amidst controversy over Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in Assam, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won all the 9 municipalities in Karbi Anglong district including Diphu. The BJP won 59, the INC 3, and the Independents emerged victorious on 5.
So heartening to share that @BJP4Assam won all 9 municipalities in Karbi Anglong district including Diphu. Elections were held on 8th January 2019. @BJP4India won 59, @INCIndia 3 and independents 5. Reflects growing popularity of the Party in #Assam
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (Modi Ka Parivar) (@himantabiswa) January 10, 2019
In the Civic polls in Karbi Anglong (KA) and West Karbi Anglong autonomous district, the nearest rival Congress has totally been decimated in all the urban patches of the district.
Amarsing Tisso a triumphant BJP leader of East Karbi Anglong district committee said, “We were hopeful about a clean sweep in both the autonomous districts considering the massive record-breaking voter’s mood, high proportion of voting means youth partaking which has always rallied round BJP.”
Recently, the BJP also emerged victorious in panchayat polls in Assam. The BJP has won 9,025 Gram Panchayat Member (GPM) seats out of 21,990 seats. Earlier, the BJP also bagged 991 Gram Panchayat President Seats, 1,020 Anchalik Panchayat Member seats, and 2012 Zila Parishad Member seats.
These local body elections were nothing less than litmus tests for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2019 general elections in Assam. The party faced huge backlash for its stand on the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016, and its rivals vehemently criticized the party for its stand. Malicious propaganda was carried out against the party, but despite all the hurdles, BJP came out with flying colours.
The recent local body elections in Assam are also being considered as a referendum on the BJP’s stance on the National Register of Citizens of India (NRC).
In July, the Assam Government had published the much awaited final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). There were around 40 lakh people whose names did not feature in the final draft of NRC. The main motive behind updating and publishing NRC is to separate authentic Indian citizens in Assam from illegal immigrants. NRC consists of the names of Indian citizens of Assam and the list was prepared in 1951. Since the BJP came to power in Assam, it restarted the exercise. The BJP has been vehemently supporting the NRC and has also taken a proactive stand against the illegal immigration since the beginning. The Congress joined only later on.
When the final draft of NRC was published, Tarun Gogoi, the former CM of Assam and a senior Congress leader tried to take credit for initiating the NRC process. He failed to elaborate on why his government which was incidentally the longest serving in the state failed to execute the NRC but instead chose to downplay the success of the final draft of NRC prepared by the BJP government. Congress President Rahul Gandhi too followed the suit of Tarun Gogoi and tried to claim credit for the NRC by stating that the move had been initiated by former PM Manmohan Singh. However, both failed to explain why they did not go ahead with their plans when the Congress was ruling in the Centre as well as in state. In fact, Congress used illegal Bangladeshi immigrants as their vote bank. People of Assam are very well aware of the fact that which party is working in the interest of Assam and which only pretends to. And their recent choice clearly reflects their mood. Since the BJP emerged victorious in the Assam state assembly elections, its popularity has kept growing and the party has enjoyed a winning streak in the state.
