Friday, the 13th could not have been worse than this for the people of Assam. While the people of West Bengal were celebrating the much awaited end of CPM (Communist Party of India) rule for 34 consecutive years in the state, the neighboring state Assam has given its fate for next five years in the hands of Indian National Congress (INC) party. It's the third consecutive victory for Tarun Gogoi led INC government in Assam. It is surprising that, although the image of INC has been shattered by the never before corruptions in 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games scam and many others, although the country woke up to fight against corruption led by Anna Hazare the recent assembly election results did not really hamper INC's image. In Tamil Nadu, although INC ally DMK has lost to AIADMK , it's not very surprising there. Such shift from one party to the another is very common there after a gap of 5-10 years. But the other state's results more or less went in favor of the ruling party at the center, with Assam showing the largest support for INC may be, allowing the party to come into power for 3rd consecutive term.
Inefficient opposition has led to the rise of INC, no doubt. But what sets the alarm in the state this time is that a local party called AIUDF, formed less than a decade ago with mass support from the religious minorities (99% of whom have illegally infiltrated to the state through the Bangladesh border) has become the party with second highest majority. The local mainstream party like AGP, or national party like BJP were completely devastated in this election. Another sad thing is that, no party has gained the minimum number of seats to stand as an opposition in the assembly which means the ruling party won't have any opposition for the next five years, nothing can be more shameful than this in the largest democracy of the world. Although INC and AIUDF had many pre-election differences, the results have shown that both of them are the gainers. Only AGP-BJP are losing the battle. It also raises a doubt whether there were any secret tie up between INC and AIUDF before the election although they never made it public. This has an advantage in the sense that INC will never lose the votes of Assamese people who otherwise won't have supported INC if there was a INC-AIUDF tie up. AGP-BJP did not seem to play any game at all this time, last time at least there was a tie up between them, but this time the division of vote between them cost them a lot. But what AGP might have thought that, if they declared a tie up with BJP, the road to form a coalition government with AIUDF would be closed. So AGP fought their battle alone whereas INC had its declared partner BPF (Bodoland People's Forum), and may be unofficial tie up with AIUDF. And the result is clear, these three parties have got the first three positions in number of seats pushing AGP BJP to 4th and 5th positions respectively.
No matter how INC has won the election, the question now to ask is what can the people of Assam can expect from INC government for the next five years. Obviously INC will continue various schemes it introduced in last few years and common people will enjoy its benefit and will continue supporting INC no matter what the overall development of the state, what the government is doing to stop illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, whether corruption has become low or not and similar issues of broader interest. Yesterday, Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi said in an interview that the issue of illegal immigration is largely exaggerated which clearly indicates that like in the previous years, the government will keep encouraging illegal immigration for the next five years as well. This is a serious warning, out of the 126 constituencies in Assam, the fate of more than 25 seats are now decided by the immigrants which will definitely increase to 35 or so after five years. We, the mainstream Assamese people will become minorities in our own state within 20 years if the public do not put any effort. May be we need another Assam Agitation to fight for our survival. May God help us, Amen!
Inefficient opposition has led to the rise of INC, no doubt. But what sets the alarm in the state this time is that a local party called AIUDF, formed less than a decade ago with mass support from the religious minorities (99% of whom have illegally infiltrated to the state through the Bangladesh border) has become the party with second highest majority. The local mainstream party like AGP, or national party like BJP were completely devastated in this election. Another sad thing is that, no party has gained the minimum number of seats to stand as an opposition in the assembly which means the ruling party won't have any opposition for the next five years, nothing can be more shameful than this in the largest democracy of the world. Although INC and AIUDF had many pre-election differences, the results have shown that both of them are the gainers. Only AGP-BJP are losing the battle. It also raises a doubt whether there were any secret tie up between INC and AIUDF before the election although they never made it public. This has an advantage in the sense that INC will never lose the votes of Assamese people who otherwise won't have supported INC if there was a INC-AIUDF tie up. AGP-BJP did not seem to play any game at all this time, last time at least there was a tie up between them, but this time the division of vote between them cost them a lot. But what AGP might have thought that, if they declared a tie up with BJP, the road to form a coalition government with AIUDF would be closed. So AGP fought their battle alone whereas INC had its declared partner BPF (Bodoland People's Forum), and may be unofficial tie up with AIUDF. And the result is clear, these three parties have got the first three positions in number of seats pushing AGP BJP to 4th and 5th positions respectively.
No matter how INC has won the election, the question now to ask is what can the people of Assam can expect from INC government for the next five years. Obviously INC will continue various schemes it introduced in last few years and common people will enjoy its benefit and will continue supporting INC no matter what the overall development of the state, what the government is doing to stop illegal infiltration from Bangladesh, whether corruption has become low or not and similar issues of broader interest. Yesterday, Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi said in an interview that the issue of illegal immigration is largely exaggerated which clearly indicates that like in the previous years, the government will keep encouraging illegal immigration for the next five years as well. This is a serious warning, out of the 126 constituencies in Assam, the fate of more than 25 seats are now decided by the immigrants which will definitely increase to 35 or so after five years. We, the mainstream Assamese people will become minorities in our own state within 20 years if the public do not put any effort. May be we need another Assam Agitation to fight for our survival. May God help us, Amen!
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