Delhi results no deterrent: Here is how BJP is looking at its next target, Mission 84 in Assam

Shibaji Roychoudhury| The News Minute| February 21, 2015| 11.00 am ISTThose who wrote off the Bharatiya Janata Party after it was vanquished in Delhi by the Aam Aadmi Party ended up eating their own words couple of days ago when results of the municipal elections in Assam came out. Nine months after it had bagged half of the Lok Sabha seats during the general elections last year, the saffron party managed to capture more than 50% of the seats in the municipal boards and town committees.The party, which has set itself yet another target called ‘Mission 84’ for the upcoming state assembly elections in Assam, managed to win 39 out of 74 seats in the municipal elections. According to the state president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya it is a direct result of the relentless hard work of the local cadre in the state who have managed to get through to the voters with the vision and development plans of the BJP. “In the last few months, every member from the senior state leaders to the booth committee level members has worked overtime for the result that we have managed to achieve,” he said. However, ‘Mission 84’ may still be a far-fetched dream as there are many Muslim dominated areas in the region where the BJP has still not managed to get through to the voters. In fact, Bhattacharyya agreed that the 35 seats which the party lost are the same areas that the party lost out during the general elections.“We haven’t been able to get through to voters in constituencies like the Autonomous District, Barpeta, Dhubri and Kaliabor among others,” Bhattacharyya said. “Hence, we will focus more on these regions to ensure that our ‘Mission 84’ is achieved. However, that wouldn’t be an easy task due to the party strong right-wing image and the recent communal incidents that has happened in the Capital. Although, Bhattacharyya dismisses BJP’s communal image as a road block. According to him, there have been no such incidents in Assam in a while and the anti-Muslim image has been portrayed by the media and the opposition parties. â€œWe didn’t lose out on the 7 seats at the Lok Sabha elections and the 35 seats now, because the party’s image is communal. That is ridiculous. Municipal elections are about local issues and probably we couldn’t win more in these areas possibly because we didn’t address the local issues as the voters in these areas would have liked us to,” he added. â€˜Mission 84’ however, doesn’t count in the Muslim-dominated seats. According to a source, out of 126 assembly constituency seats, the BJP is primarily depending on two-third of the total number. “There are a total of 42 assembly constituencies where Muslims voters are either a majority or the deciding factor, the BJP isn’t keeping its hope too high, hence it is targeting the remaining 84 seats,” the source revealed. Though the BJP has won more than 50% seats in the last couple of elections and also secured around 37% of the total vote share, yet forming government could be a tough task for the party in Assam with those odds. Unlike in Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir, where the party found allies to form a coalition government, in Assam, however, the party has no allies or even the possibility of one in the future in the state. Under no circumstances will the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) ever join hands with the BJP and unfortunately, it has eaten into the party’s support base in the state another alternate to the Congress. For obvious reasons, the BJP and the Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) will not ally either. Whereas the Congress is more likely to find an ally in the AIUDF, in fact the AGP is also likely to ally with the Congress. For the BJP to oust both Congress and the two regional parties will be a tough task. Meanwhile, the party has also included several former Congress leaders like Rajen Borthakur, Ardhendu Kumar Dey, Raju Sahu, Bhupen Bora, Rana Goswami, Debabrata Saikia, Pradyut Bordoloi, Jayanta Malla Baura and Piyush Hazarika among others. This is due to the in-fighting within the Congress party which led to an attempt to even dislodge CM Tarun Gogoi last July. â€œThe in-fight broke out within the Pradesh Congress Party (PCC) due to alleged corruption at every level. Senior leaders who didn’t want to be privy to the corruption activities quit to join the BJP,” Bhattacharyya said. A source within the BJP in Assam also revealed that the central BJP leadership may start fulfilling its promises to send back Bangladeshi infiltrators. According to the source, that activity will convene in the second half of 2015.Tweet