BJP improves show in Assam with 9 lotuses

The ruling BJP on Thursday inched closer to scripting its best-ever performance in parliamentary elections by leading in nine of the 10 seats it had contested in Assam, going by trends till 9.30pm, despite the widespread opposition against it for pushing the citizenship (amendment) bill in the run-up to the three-phase elections in the state. Of the 14 seats in Assam, the party had left four to its allies — three to the AGP and one to BPF. In 2014, the BJP had won seven of the 14 seats in the state, the Congress and the AIUDF three each and Independent one.The nine seats the BJP was leading in are Karimganj (Kripanath Mallah), Autonomous District (Horen Sing Bey), Dibrugarh (Rameswar Teli), Gauhati (Queen Ojha), Jorhat (Topon Kumar Gogoi), Lakhimpur (Pradan Baruah), Mangaldoi (Dilip Saikia), Silchar (Rajdeep Roy) and Pallab Lochan Das (Tezpur). The Opposition Congress was leading in three seats — Nowgong (Pradyut Bordoloi), Barpeta (Abdul Khaleque) and Kaliabor (Gaurav Gogoi). These constituencies have a significant minority population. AIUDF candidate Badruddin Ajmal was leading in Dhubri and Independent candidate Naba Sarania in Kokjrahar. All India Trinamool Congress and the National People’s Party which contested in eight seats each drew a blank. Counting began at 8am in 51 centres across the state. By 9.30pm, the BJP’s victory in nine seats was almost clear although official announcement was yet to come. The BJP’s impressive performance comes despite the state witnessing massive anti-citizenship (amendment) bill protests till a few months ago. Several anti-bill organisations and individuals had appealed to people to vote against the party given the vow of its leaders to pass the bill in Parliament if it retained power.

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