BPF set to emerge as single largest party in Assam’s Bodoland council polls
The United Peoples’ Party Liberal and BJP were leading in 8 and 10 seats, respectively. The Congress wasn’t ahead in any seat.
GUWAHATI: Five years after being ousted from power, the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) looks set to emerge as the single largest party in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).
Till 9 pm on Friday, the BPF was leading in 22 of the total 40 seats in the council that runs the administration in five districts of western Assam. Elections to the BTC were held on September 22.
The ruling United Peoples’ Party Liberal (UPPL) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were leading in 8 and 10 seats, respectively. The Congress wasn’t ahead in any seat.
The BTC polls are being viewed as the semi-final in the five districts ahead of assembly elections due in March-April next year. Of the total 126 seats in the Assam assembly, 15 are from the 5 districts which fall under BTC.
Hagrama Mohilary, a former rebel who heads BPF, has been at the helm of affairs in the BTC for 17 years since its establishment in 2003.
Mohilary’s party had been in an alliance with the BJP at the state level along with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). But the BPF had a falling out with BJP before the 2020 BTC elections after the council was placed under governor’s rule in April 2020. In the elections that followed, the BPF and BJP contesting separately.
While the BPF emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats, the BJP, which bagged 9 seats, partnered with the newly formed UPPL that won 12 seats to assume power in the council.
The BJP, UPPL, and AGP contested the 2021 assembly polls together and are part of the BJP-led coalition that is currently in power.
The three parties had contested the BTC polls separately, with chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma leading an aggressive campaign which ended abruptly two days ahead of schedule due to the death of Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg in Singapore on September 19.
