Civic poll results don’t reflect decision of entire state, Anjan Dutta

GUWAHATI: For the second time in nine months, Congress tasted electoral defeat at the hands of BJP despite being in power in the state.
According to newly-appointed state Congress president Anjan Dutta, the Modi wave that swept the Lok Sabha polls in April-May last, played its role in the urban bodies elections too.
“In 2009, the situation was quite different.Then BJP wasn’t a factor and AGP was nowhere. We won 496 of the 746 wards and had control over more than 50 % of the town committees and municipal boards. BJP was born in Assam only in 2014 from the Modi wave. This time it was a tough for us,” Dutta said.
Results of these elections show that along with the Modi wave, the anti-incumbency factor at the fag end of the Congress’s three successive terms weighed heavily against the ruling party.
Dutta argued that Congress has, in fact, reclaimed large part of its vote share from BJP, which it had lost in the Lok Sabha election. “When we won just three of the 14 seats in the Lok Sabha election, we were rejected by the urban voters. Had the situation remained same, we would not have won a single ward in this urban body election. Winning a single ward means regaining the urban voter’s trust,” Dutta said.
Dutta rejected the predictions that the municipal election results would impact the 2016 assembly election. “Assam’s electorate is nearly 2 crore and the electorate in the urban centres, which went to the polls, is just over 14 lakh. This small electorate does not reflect the decision of the entire state and we will retain power in 2016, too,” he said.
Kicking off the campaign for the elections, chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced an ambitious Rs 1000-cr bait for the urban voters. He said if Congress repeats its 2009 results, the state government would earmark Rs1000 cr for development of urban areas.
Gogoi reshuffled his ministry weeks before the urban bodies election and projected the exercise as one aimed at infusing fresh blood into the ministry and made a desperate attempt to win back the trust of the voters.
Other Congress leaders have said urban voters traditionally do not vote for Congress. “Our vote base is in the rural areas where the size of electorate is also bigger,” one of the leaders said.