Apparently encouraged by its resounding victory in the 2014 general elections in Assam, the BJP (it won seven of the 14 parliamentary seats) seems to feel that driven by the same winds of goodwill Dispur will be within its reach in the ensuing assembly electoral battle. And little wonder the Northeast comes into reckoning only during election time or else it does not count for much. The BJP had its designs on Assam even before the 2011 election. But its attractive poll palliatives – a zero per cent interest loan of Rs.10 lakh to every unemployed youth and the provision of Rs.25,000 to every underprivileged girl at the time of her marriage – failed to influence the voters, particularly the economically-submerged tea tribes (its  main target). Despite rumours of the ruling Congress getting a good drubbing, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had the last laugh – his party won 78 seats in the 126-member House.

The minority-supported All United Democratic Front captured 18 thus relegating the largest regional party, the Asom Gana Parishad, that tasted power twice, to the third position with just 10 seats. As of now the electoral jigsaw puzzles of forging alliances or reaching understandings on seat-sharing are yet to find solutions though the BJP was able to win over the Bodo People&’s Party led by Hagrama Mohilary, once a close Congress alliance partner.

The BJP in 2003 persuaded Mohilary – who then headed the militant outfit known as the Bodo Liberation Tigers –  to join the mainstream and during  Congress rule Bodoland got autonomy under the Sixth Schedule. Mohilary deserted the Congress for not fulfilling the Bodos’ main demand of a separate state. It remains to be seen whether the BJP will play serious attention to this.  

Last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Assam tea tribes that since successive governments had cheated them his party would change their lives and he announced Rs 27,000 crore as retirement benefits for them and also workers in the unorganised sector.  He also reminded them that having the same party in government at the Centre and Dispur would be to the latter&’s advantage.

The  Congress  still  has  a  sizable  vote-bank. Though  Gogoi  has  enemies  within  and  may  not  be  as  popular  as  before  –  he  has  a  clean image –  no one has accused him of indulging in scams and scandals during his nearly 15-year  rule. Reports say the people in Assam feel that Modi visits Assam only to sell “sour mangoes.” Only after the election results will one come to know the merit of this supposedly witty criticism.