Feb. 13: Lower Assam continues to be "bad news" for the ruling Congress in elections.

The party, which drew a blank in lower Assam in last year's Lok Sabha polls, will not be heading any municipal boards or town committees in Bongaigaon, Dhubri and Nalbari districts while heading one each in Barpeta, Goalpara and Kamrup districts. In contrast, the BJP has won 11 municipal boards or town committees and has presence in all lower Assam districts. In Dhubri, it won 28 of the 42 wards against Congress's six.

No party could win a majority in Chapor town committee in Dhubri.

Assam PCC leaders today admitted the free fall of the party in lower Assam since the advent of the AIUDF in 2006.

The AIUDF had won the Dhubri and Barpeta Lok Sabha seats in 2014.

The AIUDF, however, fielded only 75 candidates in the civic polls. Most felt since the AIUDF fielded very few candidates in lower Assam, the minority votes would not be divided and it would help the Congress. But the results proved otherwise.

Party insiders said the rural votes in lower Assam have been divided between the AIUDF and the BJP followed by AGP while the urban vote has tilted mostly towards the BJP.

Atowar Rahman, a college professor in Barpeta district, said the ruling party has to rethink its strategy vis-à-vis lower Assam.

Most in the PCC think along similar lines and have indicated that some "drastic surgery" is required. "There is no denying our plight in lower Assam. It is bad news. We continue to slip after losing our traditional vote bank - Muslims. We have to introspect on what is going wrong. We can't blame a single person for the debacle," one of them said.

Sources said some PCC leaders questioned the role of dissidents and ministers from lower Assam. The Congress's bad show is even more frustrating considering chief minister Tarun Gogoi recently inducted Bhumidhar Barman, Chandan Kumar Sarkar and Sukur Ali, all from lower Assam, in his revamped ministry ahead of the polls.

Dhubri district Congress president Sushil Chandra Roy said their defeat was because of wrong selection of candidates.

"Those who did not get party tickets fought as Independents and won," he said.

On the other hand, the BJP has been able to capture the majority of municipal boards and town committees in Kamrup, Barpeta, Nalbari, Darrang and Bongaigaon districts.

It has also won a majority in three town committees and the lone municipal board in Dhubri district.

Dhubri district BJP secretary Prosenjit Dutta attributed this mandate to the trust of people in the party and development work carried out in the last five years in the district by the board and town committees. "We will continue to deliver on the promises made during electioneering," Dutta added.

It was also a mixed bag for Congress in Barak Valley. It won the Hailakandi and Karimganj municipal boards while BJP took charge of Silchar Municipal Board after 17 years. Of the three town committees, BJP won Lakhipur (Cachar) and Badarpur (Karimgang) while Congress is likely to take charge of Lala.

The Congress victory in two other urban bodies in Barak is attributed to the organisational clout as well as muscle and monetary clout of former minister and six-time MLA Gautam Roy, 65, who worked indefatigably for the past few weeks to ensure the triumph of his party in the civic polls in both Hailakandi, his hometown, and Karimganj.