Assam was the first state in the country to erupt in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act last December. As the fury spread acros...
Assam was the first state in the country to erupt in protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act last December. As the fury spread across the state, at least five people were killed. In January, as protests slowly started melting away from the streets of Assam, the imminent question was: would it give birth to a new political alternative in the state?
With Assembly elections scheduled next year, the formation of an new regional party was imperative, many of the protesters had argued. As many then put it: the need of the hour was a party that opposed “illegal migration” irrespective of religion.
After all, the Bharatiya Janata Party, currently in power in Assam, had passed the citizenship law, which makes undocumented non-Muslim migrants eligible for Indian citizenship. And, according to popular political wisdom,the Congress had long rehabilitated Muslim migrants from Bangladesh for electoral purposes. The Asom Gana Parishad, the party which claimed to represent Assamese interests, was not an option either: it was in alliance with the BJP in the state government.
New parties on the block
Nine months since, there is a burst of new political parties and formations in Assam, all of which are by-products of the stir against the CAA and claim to represent “regional” interests.
Two new parties stand...
