The victory of the Grand alliance in Bihar assembly polls today seems to have brought cheers to the Congress in Assam while the results have dampened the spirits of the Saffron party in Assam, which had launched a ‘Mission 84’ in the state going to polls early next year.
The Congress, which has been in power in Assam since 2001, has been suffering since last two years due to a dissidence and infighting among the rank and file of the party leaders. Several Congress leaders including former education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and nine sitting MlAs of the party had already joined the BJP in Assam.
The BJP, on the other hand, who had managed to win seven out of the total 14 seats in last lok Sabha elections inAssam, is eyeing Assam elections next year with lot of hope. Following the lok Sabha polls, the saffron party has also gained in local body polls in Assam last year.
“After the results of the Bihar polls today, the BJP is likely to change its polls strategy for Assam in the days to come so that the saffron party could prepare itself in a better way to face the next year’s polls in Assam,” BJP Central observer forAssam Mahendra Singh said.
Singh, who has been looking after the party affairs in Assam for a long time, however, feels that there will not be any impact of the Bihar polls in Assam. “There are differences on how elections are fought in Assam and Bihar. There will not be any impact on the Bihar polls results on Assam polls but we are going to call a meeting of the party and will adopt new strategies for the 2016 polls in Assam by analyzing the mistakes in Bihar if any,” Singh told The Pioneer.
It may be mentioned here that the recent saffron surge in Assam has even shook three time Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who had recently appealed all the political parties to join hands to keep the BJP away from power in Assam. Gogoi even called his arch rivals All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the left to come on board against the BJP.
“I think the results of the Bihar polls results today have clearly indicated that communal forces can never win over the people in India. They (the BJP) were insulting our leader Rahul Gandhiji till the other day saying that the Congress Ma Beta ka party hain aur Assam me Bap Beta ka Sarkar hain (Congress is a party of Mother and Son and in Assam there is a government run by Father and Son),” said senior Congress leader Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya.