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The outcomes of the 40-member Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) elections in Assam, dubbed because the semifinal forward of the Assembly polls subsequent yr, are more likely to throw up a fractured mandate even because the BJP emerged as the largest gainer.
Assam’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and BTC’s two major contenders, Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL), couldn’t safe the magic figures of 21 because the counting of votes are in nonetheless in progress on the time of submitting this report.
The BJP and its junior ally BPF individually fought the BTC polls which have been held in two phases on December 7 and 10.
According to the outcomes and tendencies until late on Saturday evening, the BJP and UPPL have gained and are main in 10 seats every whereas the BPF has an edge in 16 seats.
The Congress is main in one seat whereas the Independents are forward in three different seats.
This is the primary election in the BTC after the Centre had signed the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) peace accord with the All Bodo Students’ Union and a few factions of the rebel group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in January this yr.
The BTC administers 4 districts — Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri — in northwest Assam bordering West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan, and all of them are known as BTR.
The BJP, which heads Assam’s ruling coalition, is more likely to emerge as the main winner because the occasion has gained/main in 10 seats. It had managed only one seat in the 2015 BTC polls.
Despite the BJP having an alliance with the BPF in operating the Assam authorities, in this politically essential BTC polls, the saffron occasion has ditched its junior companion.
Relations between the BJP and the BPF began souring after the BTC was positioned beneath Governor’s rule earlier this yr. Political observers felt that the BJP may forge an alliance with the UPPL to manipulate the tribal autonomous physique.
The BPF has dominated the BTC ever since 2005 after the tribal autonomous physique was constituted in 2003 as a political answer to the Bodo agitation for a separate state.
The BTC elections have been scheduled on April four however have been postponed as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.
The politically important BTC elections witnessed a multi cornered contest.
Besides BJP, BPF and UPPL, the Congress and its ally All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) had additionally put up candidates.
The BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Convenor and Assam’s Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma carried out a busy marketing campaign in the electioneering whereas Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal had additionally addressed a number of election rallies.
The BTC election is taken into account as a semifinal earlier than the 126-member Assam Assembly goes to the polls in March-April subsequent yr.
The tribal council polls have been the primary election in Assam because the Covid-19 pandemic began and all the strategy of balloting was performed sustaining all security protocols.
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