Headlines
BJP beats Congress in Assam civic polls
Guwahati, Feb 12
After the recent debacle in
the Delhi assembly election, the results of polls to civic bodies in
Assam came out positive for the BJP as the party Thursday won 340 of 746
municipal board and town committee wards in the state.
Election
officials said while the Bharatiya Janata Party won 340 wards under 38
municipal bodies and town committees, the Congress won 232 wards under
17 municipal bodies and town committees.
Regional political party
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) won 39 wards followed by the All India United
Democratic Front (AIUDF) with eight and the Nationalist Congress Party
with four wards.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and
the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) won one seat each, while 77 were won
by independents, officials said.
An election official they "still compiling some of the counting reports".
The
results came as a contrast to that in 2009, when the ruling Congress in
Assam had secured 425 seats. The AGP and the BJP came second and third,
with 102 and 66 seats respectively.
The civic polls which were
held Feb 9 was seen as a semi final by the political parties, ahead of
the state assembly polls slated for early next year.
The results
came as a major setback for the Congress which has been in power in
Assam since 2001. The party had suffered a lot in the last four years
due to the growing difference of opinion among party leaders.
Chief
Minister Tarun Gogoi, however, said the results of the civic polls were
as expected, and that the party fared better than the Lok Sabha polls.
Gogoi,
however, took to the Delhi election results quickly in his bid to slam
the BJP, and said people discarded the BJP in just eight months.
The
result, however, elated the BJP in Assam, which is hoping to make it
big in the 2016 assembly polls. The BJP had secured seven of 14 Lok
Sabha seats in Assam in the 2014 elections.
"We are happy to see
the results of the civic polls today. I hope the people of Assam have
accepted the BJP and they have realised the misrule of the Congress in
Assam over the years," said Assam BJP president Siddhartha
Bhattacharyya.
In Delhi too, the BJP hailed the results of the
local body elections, saying the results indicated that the people of
Assam had made up their minds to oust the incumbent Congress government.
In
a statement, party spokesperson Sambit Patra said the results were of
"prime importance" as the state will go for assembly polls in 2016.
The elections held to 74 urban local bodies registered a voting percentage of about 72 percent.
Patra
said of the 74 urban local bodies that went to the polls, the BJP won
at least 45, significantly improving its number from 16 it had won in
the last election.
"The results clearly point to the fact that
the people of Assam have made up their minds to outst the incumbent
Congress government and install a development-oriented BJP government,"
he said.