BJP wins big in Assam, party chief Amit Shah gets a confidence boost

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 20, 2016: A normally reserved BJP president Amit Shah was clearly happy as he witnessed his party’s coalition in Assam crossing the 50-seat mark.

Under pressure to produce results for the party after two stunning defeats in Delhi and Bihar last year, Shah suddenly stands on a strong platform.

Apart from its impressive victory in Assam, the BJP has managed to win eight seats in West Bengal and one in Kerala. However, it had hoped to win over 10 seats in Bengal and at least five in Tamil Nadu. So, the gains are more than the target it had set in Assam.

A close aide to Shah said, "We are a party committed to protecting the security of the nation at any cost. And we are happy that we will rule in Assam, a most crucial state in terms of national security. In fact, now we are ruling in a majority in Kashmir, a border state. BJP’s victory in Assam is the beginning of a great transformation."

BJP general secretary in-charge of Assam, Ram Madhav, who worked hard for the victory, said, "It is a vote for development and security and a thumbs up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Act-East policy which also aims at developing India’s underdeveloped North-East region. It is also a vote for the BJP’s aim of having a Congress-mukt Bharat." "We dedicate this victory to Maa Kamakhya, Brahmaputa and the great saint Shankardev," he added.

President rules

The Assam win is special for Shah, an admirer of Hindutva ideologue Veer Savarkar, who had predicted the dangers to Assam’s security and identity in the 1940s when the wholesale migration of Bengali Muslims from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) had begun. Savarkar had predicted that migration issue was something for which Assam may suffer.

The 1982 Nellie massacre was virtually Savarkar’s prediction coming true.

Incidentally, the outgoing Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi played on the same fears of the Assamese people in the past two elections and strategically refused to have an alliance with the Bengali Muslim leader Badruddin Ajmal of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUD.) But the tide started turning after the BJP struck a high development-and-security pitch in Assam under Modi’s leadership.

The vote share of the BJP coalition has in fact gone up impressively as compared to the 2014 election, giving an idea of the support that the coalition has gained.

Having taken bold steps recently in appointing ideologically-committed leaders from backward sections as the state presidents in UP and Punjab, Shah now finds himself in a confident position to face his next big task: The Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab in 2017.