Second decisive shift
The Hindu
The NDA’s emphatic victory in Assam shows protests and poll preferences can coexist
On paper in Assam, the Congress had identified the electorate’s pain points well enough. Its manifesto promised non-implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), three million jobs in a State historically struggling with unemployment numbers, raising the daily wage of tea garden workers, free electricity up to 200 units per household and ₹2,000 monthly income support to all homemakers. An emphatic no to the CAA was meant to win back the ethnic Assamese vote that had decisively shifted to the BJP over the course of the 2014 general election and the State poll two years later. The wage sop intended to court what was once an assured party vote bank that years of silent work by the RSS and its affiliates had chipped away. A tie-up with the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) of Badruddin Ajmal, a prospect which the party had officially shied away from all these years, was aimed at ensuring non-fragmentation of the ‘Muslim vote’. And yet, the whole isn’t quite the same as the sum of its parts. The 10-party ‘Grand Alliance’ is only projected to win around 40 seats as the BJP-led NDA seems set to romp home a second time with a victory margin almost mirroring its debut triumph in the State in 2016. So, what gives?
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