As polling in Assam drew to a close after its second and final phase of elections on Monday, it is the course correction in political strategy effected by the BJP – after it lost a crucial fight in Bihar last year – that has stood out during the campaigns.
From naming a chief ministerial candidate with a distinct contribution to the preservation of Assamese socio-cultural identity, to shedding the Bharat Mata and anti-beef rhetoric in favour of protecting regional culture, the BJP’s campaign in Assam was vastly different from its earlier scripts in Bihar, Delhi and Haryana and Maharashtra and Jharkhand prior to that.
Although party President Amit Shah and General Secretary Ram Madhav coordinated the campaign, it was chiefly spearheaded by a strong local leader like Himanta Biswa Sarma, a Congress strongman who switched over to the BJP only last year. Lastly, the campaign was also marked by a restricted number of public meetings by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as compared to other State elections.
A significant distinction was the nuanced adoption of “small nationalism” as opposed to the “big nationalism” of Bharat Mata and the national flag being advocated by the BJP at the national level. By definition, “small nationalism” is the adoption of the Assamese identity and the issues that articulate it.
It was exemplified in the projection of Sarbananda Sonowal as the chief ministerial candidate. Sonowal, a former Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader, is known mostly for his role in scrapping the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, which was known to favour migrants from Bangladesh.
The subliminal text in opposing “outsiders” or “illegal migrants” was still the BJP’s inherent anti-Muslim focus but it was framed more towards “protecting the local”. The aim of the party, as articulated in its Vision Document, was the protection of the socio-cultural identity of Assam and development of “ Xarvasreshtha Axom ”.
Even in the section that deals with “infiltrators”, the party’s pledge was to implement the Assam Accord and protect the Xatra or Satra and other religious, cultural and ecological structures from infiltrators.
Biswa Sarma says the BJP’s aim in Assam was to protect this unique socio-cultural identity from the massive demographic change that has come about because of Bangladeshi migrants.
“In this, we have the support of the Assamese Muslims. The communal campaign is run by the likes of Badruddin Ajmal who is appealing only to Muslims. Our aim is to protect the socio-cultural identity of Assam,” he told this correspondent on a visit to Guwahati.
Fielding Muslim candidatesTo buttress Sarma’s point, the BJP’s Treasurer Raj Kumar Sarma said his party, for the first time, fielded as many as eight Muslim candidates among the 84 seats it is contesting in the State. “The Assamese Muslims too oppose outsiders from Bangladesh. We will definitely get their support in this election,” said Sarma. Accordingly, the BJP projected the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal as its main enemy because he represents the interests of the “infiltrators”.
Even the BJP president Amit Shah, known for his inflammatory speeches during elections, predicting that “crackers will burst in Pakistan” in the event of a Mahagathbandhan victory in Bihar, confined himself to attacking the “outsiders” in Assam, a State with over 34 per cent Muslim population.
Just like the articulation of issues strictly around local sensibilities, the star campaigners in Assam also belonged to the State. Unlike Bihar, where the Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned extensively, he addressed altogether ten rallies in Assam.
BJP President Amit Shah was stationed in the State, but it was Himanta Biswa Sarma and Sarbananda Sonowal who remained the party’s chief campaigners. The BJP seems to have certainly learnt from the mistakes of the past.