With exit polls predicting a numero uno position, way before the mandate started to trickle in on May 2, the status quo of the BJP in Assam was foretold. These prophecies resonated more throughout the trajectory right from round 1 in the morning hours on Sunday.
While the narrative of ‘Vikas’ (development) coupled with an unmatched figure, vigour and valour of BJP’s Chanakya Himanta Biswa Sarma, is projected as a clear winning streak for the BJP, the undercurrents bring to surface a host of other reality-checks for observers to take cognizance of.
This election has broken many jinx in Assam, in a way indicating that, a last-minute strategy by the opposition including the Congress, single-handedly banking on a few rhetorical notions, won’t make a mark.
To start with, the stage set by the opposition on the edifice of an anti-CAA sentiment has clearly failed to bell the cat. The opposition, along with the newly formed parties drawing an anti-people caricature of the BJP, could not capitalize on their intentions to bash BJP left right and centre.
The pro-regional formation was completely decimated right from its initial stages when several new parties mushroomed the political space with one common election issue, but the difference in consensus to combine into one big force. The people of Assam could not understand the reluctance of the regional formations to combine and therefore their entire strategy backfired as people got sceptical about their power-mongering motives.
The internal feud in leadership, the self-destructive competition between the two parties on seat-sharing lines, the cold war over projection of chief ministerial candidate and the political immaturity at the organizational level did all the damage for the regional camp.
To be precise, when it comes to Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), it is a clear case of over-confidence and to some extent, an untimely attained political arrogance when the chief of an embryonic party formed just a few days ago started flaunting aristocracy and looked megalomaniac when he went to the extent of hovering in the skies in a chopper while on the campaign.
However, Rajior Dal chief Akhil Gogoi made a mark for himself by taking a mature and intelligent political decision in the nick of time by sensing the common sentiment and disassociating himself from the pro-migrant affinity of the former advisor of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS).
This showed the political prowess of the peasant leader who single-handedly led the party to a status where it can today at least register its existence in the political space.
Coming to Congress, it has now reduced to a fringe party, leaning on anyone and everyone who can be of some help to straighten its posture. 2021 may mandate yesterday however nailed the coffin for the Congress when it got decimated in all the four States and one UT, thereby pegging for retrospection and introspection into every single debacle that hit the party in the recent election. The resignation of the APCC president Ripun Bora is only to start with.