CAA visibly weaker, parties change narrative of foreigners issue in areas north of Brahmaputra

From the last battle of Saraighat to security, progress and development, the foreigners issue has become the core topic that the BJP is espousing in this assembly election in Assam.

In the first phase of election on March 27, a majority of the 47 seats going to polls are in Upper Assam and on the north bank of Brahmaputra.

In 2016, the BJP and ally Asom Gana Parishad had got 35 of these seats and the rest were won by the Congress, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and others.


The BJP had last time campaigned saying the election was the last battle of Saraighat, referring to the 1671 battle in which the Ahom army in Assam had defeated the Mughals.

Upper Assam had witnessed bitter protests in 2019 and early 2020 over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which makes minority communities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.

While that bitter sentiment over the CAA isn’t openly visible now, the BJP’s slogan this time is “protection, civilisation and progress”.

The foreigners issue has dominated the Assam politics and polls since the All Assam Students Union launched a six-yearlong anti-foreigner’s movement in 1979.

While Congress’ campaign is centred on its promise to bring in a law to nullify the CAA in the state and its allegation that the BJP is trying to dilute the culture and language of Assam, BJP’s claim is that only it can keep Assam free from infiltration.

The ruling party claims that its government had arrested cross-border influx by using technological solutions and made important religious places and wildlife areas encroachment-free.

Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal recently told ET: “The unrest (over CAA) was politically motivated. When people realised that it is politically motivated, they denounced it. The Congress has no right to rack up the issue for it was under whose rule the citizenship rules were amended several times.”

Political observers feel the CAA protest had weakened post the Covid-19 lockdown, but it could still influence the decision of a small section of voters. “However, the foreigners issue is there in the polls though the narrative of political parties has changed,” an observer ET talked to said.

The observer said the BJP’s campaign had been that AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal could become the chief minister of Assam and that there was the need to stop this.