GUWAHATI: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is leading his party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in the state from the front, said half of the state’s Muslim electorate has voted for BJP in the seats where polling has been completed.
While the first phase of polls in the state was held in five indigenous-heavy constituencies, which includes native Assamese-speaking Muslims, the other seats which went to the polls in the second phase have a significant presence of Bangladesh-origin Muslim migrant voters as well as native Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to the media at one his campaign rallies in Mirza on Saturday, Sarma said, “We did not expect all Muslim voters to vote for us in the seats where polling has been done. But 50% of them have come out to vote or us this time. This will further improve in future elections.”
Explaining why Muslims have voted for BJP, Sarma said, “Our govt has worked maximum for the religious minorities. They understood that whatever I have been saying is for their good.”
“When I am sending out messages of educating their girls, asking them to go for plantations of various trees, they will also be benefited. I am stressing on educating girls, not just Hindu girls but Muslim girls too. I have not spoken about Congress or Rahul Gandhi,” he added.
Once a Congress stronghold, these regions of Assam over the years became AIUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal’s backyard, but BJP is not shying away from staging the biggest electoral coup in the Bangladesh-origin Muslim heartland.
Sarma had earlier said times have changed and in the last 10 years, the mindset of people (Bangladesh-origin Muslims) have changed in the entire Assam and they have realized that BJP is not their enemy.
BJP’s biggest support has been coming from the state’s womenfolk in every election since the 2104 Lok Sabha election. This time, the Bangladesh-origin Muslim women have joined and that, too, in large numbers.
Among the seats which went to the polls in second phase, Bangladesh-origin Muslim voters account for more than 51% of the electorate in in Nagaon constituency. Their percentage in Darrang-Udalguri, a newly created constituency by delimitation last year, is over 30%.
On the other hand, in southern Assam’s Barak Valley, Karimganj’s Muslim population is more than 60%, followed by over 40% in Silchar.
In the third phase, Barpeta constituency, where the electoral demography has been overhauled, the Bangladesh-origin Muslim voters will still have a say. BJP’s ally AGP, which has a foothold among the migrant Muslims, is contesting this seat.
Guwahati, also a third-phase seat, has a sizeable Bangladesh-origin Muslim voters of more than 25%.
Dhubri constituency, where Badruddin Ajmal is the sitting MP, has the highest concentration of Muslim voters, majority being Bangladesh-origin migrants, in the country. Here, too, BJP’s ally, AGP, is contesting this seat and an upbeat Sarma said he would also campaign there.
Sarma confidently predicted that BJP and its allies would win more than 12 seats out of the total 14 in the state, which, if proven true, would be the largest number of seats the party has won in the state so far.
Sarma mentioned that BJP is expected to secure victory in all five seats of Phase-1 poll and four out of the five seats that were contested in phase two. “In one seat of phase two, it is going to be a tough contest,” he said without naming which one.
Sarma is also confident that in the third phase of polling, which will be held in the last four seats on May 7, the BJP and its allies will win three seats and will put up a fight for the remaining one seat.