Panchayat polls: BJP wins most ZPM seats

Guwahati, December 16, 2018:

The Assam State Election Commission on Sunday declared the results of 419 of the 420 Zila Parishad Member (ZPM) seats of the recently-held two-phase panchayat elections.

The BJP bagged 217 seats, Congress-147, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)-19, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF)-25 and others-11. Re-polling was ordered in the remaining one seat.

The polls were an acid test for the BJP, which heads Assam’s three-party coalition government, given the massive protests by various organisations besides the opposition parties for its move to get the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 passed to legitimize the stay of non-Muslim immigrants of Bangladesh besides Pakistan and Afghanistan who migrated to India till December 31, 2014.

The protests hardly had any effect on the polls as evident from the BJP’s winning the highest number of seats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal thanked the voters for voting in favour of the saffron party.

The Congress’s performance was more or less average after the party emerged second. However, the biggest losers were the AGP and the AIUDF.

The AGP, which wanted to reach out to the voters by adopting a strong position against the Citizenship Bill, got little support. This was reflected in the party’s dismal performance.