BJP hopes to retain Assam tribal council after losing cooperative body

The BJP hopes to ‘retain’ the Karbi Anglong tribal council, the elections to which were held on Saturday. But the party went to the polls after a minor setback – wipeout in an election to a cooperative body in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district.

Officials in central Assam’s Karbi Anglong district said 72% of a total 5,97,628 voters braved the rain and soggy conditions to exercise their franchise in the election to the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC).

The BJP had wrested power in the 26-member KAAC soon after it formed a coalition government in Assam last year. This happened after most of the members, including council chief Tuli Ram Ronghang, switched over from Congress to the saffron party.

Election to KAAC was due in January this year after completion of five years but governor Banwarilal Purohit extended its term by six months. Both the BJP and Congress went all out to campaign for the election.

The Congress, though, had something to cheer about two days prior to the KAAC election. Candidates that it had supported swept the 15 posts of the Pub Konwarpur Samabay Samity (cooperative society), a prestigious body in Sivasagar district.

The candidates that BJP had backed had to cut a sorry figure. The victors will control the cooperative society for five years.

Sivasagar had been a Congress bastion but the BJP won three of the five assembly constituencies in this district in the May 2016 election. Another seat went to ally Asom Gana Parishad. Former assembly speaker Pranab Kumar Gogoi retained his Sivasagar seat to save the Congress the blushes.

“It may be a small election, but the result has shown people have faith in the Congress,” Gogoi said.