Assam panchayat polls: BJP unaffected by protests against Citizenship Bill

Guwahati, December 14, 2018:

The statewide protests in Assam against the BJP’s bid to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 had no effect on the saffron party in the panchayat elections.

The BJP was leading by a huge margin over other political parties including opposition Congress. The counting of ballots is still on and likely to be completed by Friday evening.

According to results received till Thursday evening, the BJP won 7,768 Gaon Panchayat Members (GPM) seats, 653 Anchalik Panchayat Members (APM) seats, 605 Gaon Panchayat presidents (GPP) seats and 223 Zila Parishad Members (ZPM) seats.

The Congress was a distant second with 3,948 GPM seats, 365 APM seats, 293 GPP seats and 131 ZPM seats. There are 2,200 Gaon Panchayats in Assam. Altogether 78,571 candidates contested for 26,808 seats. Of them, 1,512 contested for 420 ZPM seats, 7,004 for 2,199 APM seats, 7,667 for 2,199 GPP seats and 62,388 for 21,990 GPM seats.

In the lead up to the two-phase December 5 and 9 elections, Assam had witnessed a series of protests against the Citizenship Bill which seeks to legitimize the stay of non-Muslim immigrants of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan in India.

The Congress admitted that the protests by the 70 organisations and political parties against the Citizenship Bill had no effect on the polls.

“The protests by the 70 organisations against the Bill had created panic among non-Assamese communities, especially in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts. This was evident in the panchayat poll results declared so far,” Congress spokesman Pradyut Bordoloi said.

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which is a constituent in the BJP-led coalition government, also admitted the protests had no effect.

“We have to introspect. We have to do further studies,” AGP leader Kamala Kalita said.

Stating that the AGP’s differences with ally BJP were over the Citizenship Bill, he said, “People voted for the BJP as it is a major constituent of the government with the highest number of MLAs. People thought they would get more benefits if they vote for the BJP. We were third in Assembly elections and we are in that position even now”.

To a query, Kalita admitted the AGP was not in a position to form the government on its own. “We have to do a lot at the organizational level,” he added.