Forecasting election results in India is usually a foolhardy exercise. Yet, travelling through Lower Assam – as the western districts of th...
Forecasting election results in India is usually a foolhardy exercise. Yet, travelling through Lower Assam – as the western districts of the state are called – it is fairly obvious who is leading in the area outside the perimeters of the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Region.
The districts of Barpeta, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Dhubri and South Salmara-Mankachar are home to a large Muslim population of Bengali origin, most of whom identify as Assamese now. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Himanta Biswa Sarma has repeatedly said the party did not need the votes of the community this election.
To make things even more concrete, the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front, a local party which claims to represent the interests of the community, have come together. A breakdown of voting numbers shows the few seats the BJP won in the area in the 2016 Assembly election was largely a result of the Congress and the AIUDF contesting separately.
Probably, nothing underlines this mathematics better than the BJP’s state president Ranjeet Dass, the incumbent MLA from Barpeta’s Sorbhog, deciding to contest from adjoining Hindu-majority Nalbari’s Patacharkuchi instead after the opposition got together.
The results may indeed be a foregone conclusion in this part of the state, but voters, particularly those young and educated,...
