The BJP, along with allies AGP and UPPL, has won the Assam Assembly elections but will be the chief minister is now the big question. This is the first non-Congress party to form the government for a second time.
The BJP had projected the incumbent chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, for the post in 2016, but stayed away from naming anybody this time around, thus setting off speculations. Now that the BJP-led alliance is set to assume power, the question has returned. The race is between Sonowal and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is now the face of the BJP in the North East. Himanta had earlier announced he was not going to contest this year, but relented after meetings with the party’s central leadership.
The election has been a triangular contest between the NDA, the Congress-led Mahajot, and an alliance of two new regional parties — Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal (RD) — formed in the backdrop of resentment against the CAA.
The defeat raises questions about the future of Assamese sub-regional nationalist politics in the face of the BJP’s brand of nationalistic politics.
