Bodo People’s Front one seat short of majority in Autonomous Council

The AIUDF too has made its entry into the Bodoland Territorial Council by winning four seats, and the BJP one. While seven independents backed by the Abodo Suraksha Samiti have also made it to the Council apart from one unattached independent, the Congress, AGP and CPI(M) have all drawn blank.

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This was the first time since formation of the BTC following the Bodo Accord of 2003 that national parties like the Congress, BJP and CPI(M) had contested in the elections. The AGP had won one seat in 2010, but drew blank this time. The BTC has 46 members, of which 40 are elected and six nominated from communities that remain unrepresented.

Failure of the Congress to win even one seat and that of the BJP to make any major presence in the Bodoland Council have both proved that the Bodos continue to remain detached from national or even regional parties. The BPF, which was an ally of the Congress party in the state assembly since 2006 had withdrawn support to the Congress after it lost the Kokrajhar Lok Sabha seat to a former ULFA leader backed by the Sanmilita Janagosthiya Aikyamancha, a platform of non-Bodo communities living in the four districts that constitute the Bodoland Council.