The BJP-led ruling alliance has bagged most zilla parishads and anchalik panchayats across Assam in the recently-held panchayat polls besides making inroads in minority areas.
According to the results shared by the BJP on Tuesday, the ruling alliance, comprising the BJP, the AGP, the Ganashakti and the Rabha Joutha Mancha, has won 300 of the 397 zila parishad (ZP) seats and 1,436 of the 2,192 anchalik panchayat (AP) seats.
The seat won by the alliance make up for 76.22 per cent ZP seats and 66 per cent of the AP seats, up from 231 ZP seats and 1,143 AP seats in the last panchayat polls held in 2018.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said the party or the alliance’s encouraging growth in the minority areas was due to the support from Muslim women because of the BJP-led state government’s welfare schemes. He claimed that the Centre’s striking down of the triple talaq and the state’s crackdown on child marriage have also had a positive impact on Muslim women.
Sarma was addressing a media conference with state BJP president Dilip Saikia at the state party headquarters in Guwahati.
The chief minister said: “My simple observation is that more and more Hindus are voting for us. If it were 80 per cent earlier, it has become 95 per cent now. Muslim people, from a very low base, may be 2 to 5 per cent, we are at 13 per cent today. This is because of the Prime Minister’s policy of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas.”
He added: “If you look at the welfare schemes today—maximum schemes are going to the minority community because they are poor. In my assessment, we are getting more and more women votes from the minority community.”
While the BJP alliance has swept away the Congress from Hindu-majority districts, including Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Majuli, Golaghat and Jorhat in Upper Assam, it has made encouraging inroads in districts having significant Muslim population, including Morigaon, Nagaon, Goalpara, Sribhumi, Hailakandi, Barpeta, Darrang, Lakhimpur, Bongaigaon and Dhubri.
Assam has a Muslim population of over 34 per cent, mostly in lower Assam and Barak Valley.
A political observer said if the the trend of Muslims voting for the BJP-led alliance in Lok Sabha and panchayat elections continues, it will become difficult for the Opposition to challenge the alliance in next year’s Assembly elections, something that the BJP has started harping following its comprehensive victory in the panchayat polls.
“The people’s mandate is a resounding endorsement of our welfare-driven governance & a strong show of faith as we move towards 2026,” Sarma said in a post on X.
The principal Opposition Congress has seen its fortunes plummet further. The party could bag only 73 ZP seats and 477 AP seats. The state Trinamool has won five AP seats, its first in the panchayat polls, according to the state president Romen Chandra Borthakur.
Assam panchayat elections took place in two phases on May 2 and 7.