Religious polarization has changed the politics of Assam

May 3, 2024 1:41 am

The name of Assam is the state that is always discussed from economic to political aspects of Northeast India. Since the partition of the country in 1947, the Congress, the country’s freedom movement party, has had a strong political position here. Although the BJP has seen a noticeable rise in the state for the past decade. The state from which the country got India’s first woman Chief Minister. And it is in that state that there have been serious allegations of taking away citizenship from Muslim residents.

The Brakshaputra river has cut through the heart of the state of Assam, which is located in the south of the Himalayas. There are mountains of Cachar in the north. Barak Valley is also there. Assam is called India’s connecting bridge with the six northeastern states of Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal, Nagaland and Meghalaya.

According to the information, the state is named ‘Assam’ in the local language which is called ‘Aham’ because of the hilly and flat uneven land.
And for this reason, many people say that the political picture in this state is also uneven.

The political history of the state says that out of 17 Chief Ministers, 10 were from the Congress. In other words, out of 17 state governments, Congress was in power 10 times. The name of the last Congress Chief Minister in the state is ‘Tarun Gogoi’. After that, in 2016, this film changed.

The ocher camp of Modi-Amit-Yogi is in power in the state of 33 districts. In the 2016 assembly polls, the NDA coalition came to power by winning 86 seats in the 126-seat assembly. The NDA alliance includes the Assam Constituent Assembly, the Greater People’s Progressive Front or BPF.

The Congress and the provincial All India United Democratic Front are now in opposition. However, the AIUDF is now considered stronger than the Congress. Assam’s political intellectuals also feel that the party’s role in protecting the interests of minorities is becoming increasingly solid.

AIDF also won one seat in the 14-seat Lok Sabha. AIUDF is also a partner of the anti-BJP Alliance of India.

Political analysts of Northeast India believe that the main reason for the change in the political background of Assam is the hill tribals and the people coming from outside. And this is where the Ocher camp has managed to create a trap of religious polarization.

Because, 34 percent of the people of the state are Muslims. A large part of them are the Muslim people of East Pakistan who took refuge in India in 1971 during the partition of East Pakistan and later. So politics is now revolving in the state with religion in front. But the people of Assam ultimately decide for or against religious polarization – that will be known when the results are announced on June 4.