With the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) elections on the cards, the BJP is pushing hard to oust the 15-year-old Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) leadership from its home turf, after an informal fissure in the BJP-BPF coalition owing to election priorities.
The BJP has blown the poll bugle with high voltage serial campaigns by a heavyweight contingent led by Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is construed to be the ‘Chanakya’ of the saffron party in the Northeast.
Addressing mass rallies at different target constituencies in the BTR region, the BJP has kickstarted its coup against the incumbent BPF, slamming their reign as one fraught with mismanagement, misappropriation of public funds and political violence, including motivated murders.
Sharma was also harsh on the BPF on the grounds of depriving the non-tribals in the region of their rights, along with massive embezzlement of land rights in the territory. He added with an informative tone that the government in Dispur has dispatched chunks of funds and freebies for the development of the BTR populace, but a lot of that has been siphoned off by political goons operational in the area.
Meanwhile, retaliating against the BJP, BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary has quashed all accusations levelled against him, asserting that the BJP has no base in BTR and that the BPF will stage a comeback with 25-30 council seats.
With the BJP and the BPF engaged in a war of words, the political dynamics in BTR is on the boil, more prominently after Sharma landed on the election discourse himself, creating ripples in the already troubled waters of the BPF.
BTR is all set to witness the clash of the titans with elections scheduled on the 7th (First Phase) and 10th of December (Second Phase). The counting of votes has been slated for 12th December, from 8 am. Major political parties, including the BJP, BPF, UPPL, Gana Suraksha Party, Congress and AIUDF, have fielded their candidates for the council elections. These elections will prove to be a litmus test for all these parties before the upcoming 2021 Assembly elections in Assam.