BJP may take power in Assam

If the exit polls of independent agencies are any indicator, the BJP-led alliance is set to take power by bagging 79 out of the 93 seats in the 126-member Assembly, thereby ending 15 years of Congress rule in Assam.

Three exit polls have predicted a thumping majority for the BJP-led alliance whereas fourth survey gave the Bharatiya Janata Party and its allies 57 seats — close to the halfway mark.

The India Today-Axis exit poll gave 79-93 seats to the BJP combine, 26-33 to the Congress and 6-10 to the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

ABP-Nielsen predicted 81 seats for the BJP coalition, 33 for the Congress and 10 for the AIUDF.

The NewsX Chanakya poll gave 90 seats to the BJP combine, 27 to the Congress and nine to the AIUDF.

According to the Times Now C-Voter exit poll, the BJP and its allies would get 57 seats, the Congress 41, AIUDF 18 and others 10.

In 2011, the Congress had won 78 seats, the AIUDF 18 and the BJP five seats.

After facing a drubbing in Delhi and then in Bihar, the outcome of the exit polls predicting a victory for the BJP in Assam, considered to be the gateway to the north-eastern states, has come as a major relief for the saffron party.

It is also significant that it was for the first time that the BJP has succeeded in making in-roads in the Northeast, which has been a Congress bastion. Though the BJP had been in power in the frontier state of Arunachal Pradesh due to a split in the Congress, it is heading towards an electoral victory for the first time.

With growing scepticism about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popular appeal and party chief Amit Shah’s image as a master electoral strategist, the BJP had left no stone unturned by forming an alliance with the AGP and BPF for a victory in the just-concluded Assembly polls in Assam.