Why Himanta Biswa Sarma says "I love you" to Muslim voters

It's around 11 am in Rupahi, a small rural block in Assam's Nagaon district. With an estimated 95 per cent Muslim population, the village is bubling with an unprecedented energy. Most of them, young and old, men and women, are rushing to the rally spot where Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is supposed to address them. Some overtly enthusiastic ones have surrounded the chopper in which Sarma lands. For a BJP chief minister, electorally, this is a hostile territory, particularly two days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi criticised his predecessor Manmohan Singh for allegedly saying Muslims had the first right over the country's resources. But not for Sarma.

He hops out of the chopper and runs to the barricade separating him from the nearly 10,000 people assembled there to cheer for him and the BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Nagaon Suresh Bora. The 53-year-old CM, who had returned from a campaign in Kerala around midnight, springs from his groggy mood, jumps the barricade and starts mingling with the crowd, who get into a frenzy. They hug him, touch him, shake hands with him, and in the process, leaving many scars on his arms. 

The mood is already upbeat, showing no sign of the "silent election" indicated by the low turnout in the first phase of the election held on April 19. The party's campaign song, "Akou Ebar Modi Sarkar" (once again Modi government) is playing in full blast. After the security entourage persuade Sarma to come out of the "public embrace", Sarma takes the centre stage, flanked by two huge Modi cutouts, and starts dancing and singing like a rockstar. The crowd erupts in joy, clap, dance and sing along. 

The visuals are incredible. Amid talks of widening communal rift between Hindus and Muslims under Modi government, here is Sarma, known for his diabolic statements against alleged Muslim immigrants in Assam, engaging with Bangla-speaking Muslim voters as if they both belong to each other for ages. There is no Jai Shri Ram slogan but with Sarma the crowd chants Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Modi Zindabad.

The same scene is repeated in neighbouring Samaguri, another Muslim majority area, where the assembly has been with the Congress party. In 2016, Sarma could not campaign here as his vehicle was attacked by crowd and he had to make a retreat. This time the crowd literally greeted him with flowers, as if he is their long lost beloved returning home.

It's because they are with their 'Mama', as Sarma is known across the state, who has delivered them jobs, roads and a sense of freedom from local corruption. The CM engages in a conversation asking them if he has delivered the goodies promised by Modi government, and hears a resounding yes. He promises more, a cold storage, a hospital and a stadium. Come September, after the monsoon, he will take a bike ride to inspect the village roads, he announces. And then the last promise: he will free them from the corruption of local politicians as he would monitor the geo-tagging of PM Awas Yojona himself from now on.

The people trust these promises as he has a delivery track record in Assam--most of them have got benefits of welfare schemes without greasing the palms of middle man. That's why, in Rupahi, they are happy when he asks them to start physical training to prepare for the Assam police recruitment test to he held in July. "The stadium will help you train," says Sarma adding a local context to his promise. That's why they break barricades again, reaching near the fragile stage, and the CM obliges, shaking hands with them, at times throwing flying kisses and says, "I love you."

His close aides say there is no need to rake up any religious or communal issue or even make any conciliatory statements to these Muslim voters. It's an experiment based on the confidence of Sarma's performance as CM in last three years. "In last three years, most of these poor Muslims have got benefits of welfare schemes that they never got during previous regimes. The middlemen cornered those," says one of Sarma's aide.

That's a surprisingly a new experiment coming from a politician who has,in the past, declared that he did not need Miya (Bangla-speaking Muslim immigrants) in Assam. If it succeeds, it may provide a healthy campaign paradigm for the rest of India.