BJP sweeps hitherto traditional Congress bastion

GUWAHATI: BJP charted its historic win in Assam, the first for the party in the Northeast, by sweeping hitherto traditional Congress bastions of Upper Assam, Barak Valley and by also making tentative inroads into the minority- dominated districts.

BJP successfully managed to woo the traditional Congress vote bank of tea garden labourers and also made unexpected entry in certain minority-dominated areas.

In the 34 seats in Upper Assam, with 23 of these having a sizable tea garden population for Congress, the saffron party won 18 seats as against a presence of only two seats in the outgoing Assembly.

Congress, which had swept the last polls winning 30 of its total 78 seats from Upper Assam failed miserably to stop BJP upsurge managing to retain only seven seats and wresting one from BJP.

AGP, which entered into a poll alliance with BJP, improved its tally to six from the area, retaining one seat while another sitting MLA joined BJP.

AIUDF sprung a surprise by winning Naoboicha seat,wresting it from Congress.

In another major Congress bastion of the Barak Valley with 15 seats, BJP had no presence in the last polls though it later won a by-election from Silchar but in the just concluded polls it went on to win eight seats.

Congress with 13 seats in the last Assembly from the Barak Valley, managed to retain only three while AIUDF which had only seat went on to win from three constituencies.

In the five constituencies of the Hill districts of Dima Hasao and Karbi Anglong, Congress had captured all five seats in the last polls but in this election, it managed to retain only one with BJP wresting the remaining four seats.

In the 18 constituencies of minority dominated three districts of Dhubri, Goalpara and Barpeta, BJP made tentative forays winning four seats while its ally, AGP won two seats.

AIUDF, the principal Opposition party in the last Assembly, had won 12 seats from these areas, but was decimated in this poll winning only three seats with its party chief Badruddin Ajmal losing the South Salmara seat in Dhubri district to Congress candidate Wajed Ali Choudhury.