THE election to Assam Assembly was held in three phases—March 27, April 1, and April 6. The turn out was massive, around 82.04 per cent and the election was by and large peaceful.

After the Lok Sabha election in 2019 where BJP won nine out of 14 seats in Assam, the urge for unity against BJP slowly gained ground. The election results of 2016 Assam Assembly election and Lok Sabha election in the state in 2019 show that the combined vote share of non-BJP Parties was greater than the vote share of BJP and its allies. In the 2016 Assembly election, BJP and its allies AGP and BJP got 86 seats. BJP got 60 seats (contested 89) with a vote share of 29.51 per cent. AGP got 14 seats out of 30 it contested with a vote share of 8.14 per cent. BPF won 12 out of 13 it contested and had a vote share of 3.94 per cent. So BJP and its allies got 86 seats with a vote share of 41.59 per cent. On the other hand, Congress got 26 seats contesting 122 seats. Its vote share was 30.96 per cent. AIUDF having its base mainly among Muslims contested 74 seats and won 13 seats with a vote share of 13.05 per cent. Three left parties—CPI (M), CPI and CPI (M-L) did not win a seat, polled a vote share of 0.86 per cent. Non-BJP parties had a poll percentage of 44.87 per cent distinctly more than BJP and its allies-41.59 per cent.

The equation slightly changed in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. BJP won 9 seats with a poll percentage of 36.05 per cent. Its ally AGP did not win a seat and got 8.23 per cent of votes. Another ally BPF also drew a blank with a poll percentage of 2.48 per cent. On the other hand, Congress won three seats with a vote share of 35.44 per cent. AIUDF contested only three seats having some tacit understanding with Congress and won one with a vote share of 7.88 per cent. So, BJP, AGP and BPF together got 46.76 per cent of votes. Congress and AIUDF together got 43.32 per cent.

POLITICAL CHANGES
After the Lok Sabha election, the political environment saw significant changes. The Citizenship Amendment Bill was introduced in parliament. It immediately led to a massive outburst against the Bill. After it was passed in Lok Sabha despite widespread protest in Assam, the agitation against CAA got intensified and lakhs of people joined in the agitation. Five youths were brutally killed by security forces and a number of agitationists were put into jail. Akhil Gogoi, KMSS leader was booked under UAPA and is still in jail. The anti-CAA agitation and the BJP governments’ anti-democratic and combative approach towards it developed an urge for unity against BJP and its allies.

After a long period of lockdown a near-normal life slowly came back to the state. The irresponsible and anti-people stance of the BJP government during the lockdown, the closure of two paper mills in the state and privatisation of  Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport (Guwahati), oil fields etc., led to the disillusionment of a large number of people who voted for BJP in previous elections. The utter failure to create employment, worsening conditions of peasants, refusal of the government to fulfil its electoral promises to tea workers and other workers-employees etc., led to anger towards the BJP government. Moreover, rabid communalism and vicious attempts for communal polarisation posed a serious threat to the unity and integrity of the people. BJP tried to gain political mileage by divisive politics among different linguistic, religious and ethnic communities of the state.

RIFT WITH BPF
The elections to the BTC (Bodoland Territorial Council), now renamed as BTR (Bodoland Territorial Region) through a tripartite agreement, was held in December 2020. It saw a significant political change in the state. BJP fought the election against BPF which is a coalition partner since 2016 having three ministers in the BJP led ministry. Actually, BJP had a tacit understanding with UPPL, another Bodo outfit of the BTC. During the electioneering, the BJP leaders attacked BPF and its chief Hagrama Mahilary in the most bizarre manner. Despite that BPF stood its ground and won 17 seats out of a total of 40; UPPL got 12, BJP-9. Though BPF was the single largest party, BJP immediately built up a coalition with UPPL and the governor invited the fresh combination to be sworn in. This started a significant reshuffle in state politics.

NEW REGIONAL OUTFITS
The anti-CAA agitation led to the emergence of two new regional parties. One, Assam Jatiya Parishad(AJP) led by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, the erstwhile general secretary of All Assam Students Union (AASU). Another one, Raijor Dal led by Akhil Gogoi who is still in jail.

UNITY AGAINST BJP 
Slowly the political churning for a broad unity against BJP started in Assam. Congress called for the formation of a ‘Mohajot’ (Grand Alliance) of anti-BJP parties. CPI(M) decided to respond to the unity call by having seat-sharing with the Congress-led Mohajot. AIUDF, CPI, CPI (M-L), Anchalk Gana Marcha became part of it. When the election was announced, BPF joined the Mohajot. This seven-party combination led to a massive mobilisation of anti-BJP forces in a single platform, CPI(M) called for unity of all anti-BJP forces, including the two new regional outfits-- AJP & Raijor Dal. But the regional parties did not respond.

Barring six seats, the seat-sharing was complete in the Mohajot. In six seats, Cong and AIUDF had a friendly contest against each other. AIUDF had seat-sharing understanding in 14 seats. CPI(M) contested two, CPI & CPI (M-L) one each, Anchalik Gana Morcha contested two. Subsequently, RJD was allotted one seat. The rest were fought by Congress.

BJP had seat-sharing with AGP and UPPL. AJP and Raijor Dal were talking about a seat-sharing deal. But finally, in most of the constituencies, it didn’t materialise.

ELECTION CAMPAIGN
CPI(M) contested Sorbhog and Rangia constituencies. Before the election was announced, the party planned its activities. The state secretariat and state committee members and other cadres were allotted specific responsibilities. Though the party had its own independent planning and campaign, it simultaneously developed a united campaign with the participants of Mohajot.

The election to the Rangia constituency took place on April 1. Four parties—CPI(M), Congress, BPF and AIUDF actively participated in the election campaign. The campaign started with an impressive procession during the filing of nomination papers on March 10. Following that, the intensive campaign was organised throughout the constituency. Booth committees were formed, election offices were set up. House to house campaign was organised. Separate teams of youth, women were organised to campaign besides the booth wise teams. After the intensive campaign and public meetings in the localities, two big rallies were organised at Gorewar and Rangia, two important centres of the constituency. Comrade Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau Member was the main speaker at the Goreswar meeting on March 25. The Rangia meeting on March 27 was addressed by Hagrama Mahilari, ex BTC Chief, Apurba Kumar Bhattacharya, senior Congress leader, Deben Bhattacharyya, state secretary, CPI(M) and Bhagaban Dev Mishra, the CPI(M) candidate among others.

The election campaign at Sorbhog constituency was kick-started on February 28, well ahead of the nomination process. A massive rally was organised on that day at Barpeta Road, an important business centre of the lower Assam by the CPI(M) Barpeta district committee, which was addressed by senior leaders of the Party. Sorbhog happens to be the constituency where the president of BJP, Assam unit was the sitting MLA for the last 10 years. But unnerved by the opposition unity and fearing a certain defeat he chose to opt-out of the constituency and contested from the Patacharkuchi constituency. This emboldened the election campaign at Sorbhog constituency. A large number of public meetings were organised even before the nomination papers were filed and people spontaneously attended these meetings in large numbers. Nomination papers were filed on March 17 at Barpeta. Thousands of people joined in the procession organised on that occasion.

Apart from the central election committee, booth committees were organised in most of the booths of the constituency. Intensive campaigns were organised in most of the villages where separate teams of youth, women and booth committees visited every house of the locality. Election offices were inaugurated with large gatherings. Election meetings were organised in a large number of centres where attendance was unprecedented. The central gathering was organised at Sorbhog on April 3. It was one of the biggest election gatherings in the state. The rally was addressed by Sitaram Yechury, general secretary, CPI (M),  Sakil Ahmed, general secretary AICC, Hagrama Mahilari, ex BTC Chief, Deben Bhattacharyya, and candidate Manoranjan Talukdar among others. The rally was presided over by veteran communist leader Hemen Das. The participation of youth, women and minority people were overwhelming in the meetings.

The CPI(M) Assam state committee published one booklet exposing the false promises and the failures of the state government led by BJP. An appeal to the voters was also published by the state committee. The Mohajot published a declaration on the occasion of the election. Thousands of these campaign materials were distributed among voters in each constituency. Besides the two constituencies where the CPI(M) contested, the Party actively campaigned against BJP and for electing the candidates of Mohajot. Both independent and joint campaigns were organised. The united campaign against BJP galvanized the slogan for a secular government in the state.

BJP used an astronomically high amount of money for this election. Its communal campaign beat all its previous records. It attacked the opposition leader in the most uncivilized manner. For such a speech, BJP leader, Himanta Biswa Sarma was barred from the election campaign for 48 hours by the election commission. However, Sarma tendered an unconditional apology and subsequently, the time period was reduced to 24 hours. BJP and its allies tried to utilise all divisive politics for electoral gains. Despite all these BJP and its allies are facing a very tough challenge this time.