General Election 2014: Will BJP’s Gains Polarize Assam Further?
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/2321023015575215 |
| Author | Smitana Saikia |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Subject Matter | India’s 2014 Elections |
India’s 2014 Elections
General Election 2014: Will BJP’s
Gains Polarize Assam Further?
Smitana Saikia1
Abstract
The emergence of BJP as the single largest party in the Lok Sabha elections 2014 has important impli-
cations for realignments of social groups in the country. It has firmly established its foothold in many
states thereby emerging as a national party, in the literal sense of the term. Its performance of 7 out of
14 seats in a state like Assam, which had been a Congress stronghold since independence, is no mean
feat. The Congress, as elsewhere, managed to do poorly with only three seats and many party heavy-
weights have been routed out this time. The article argues that this election has sealed the process
of disintegration of the ‘catch-all’ nature of the Congress party in Assam, the unravelling of which had
already begun in 1985 when Asom Gana Parishad won the assembly elections with a landslide victory.
A major reason for this is the realignment of social groups with political parties leading to both ethnic
polarization and ethnic accommodation in the state. This breakdown has been expedited on account of
growing dissidence and factionalism within the Congress party as well as increasingly shifting loyalties
of its core constituencies to other emerging loci of power in the state. Furthermore, the article argues
that the emerging political constellation constituting parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party and All India
United Democratic Front have a potential to further polarize a much fragmented and fragile Assam.
Keywords
Indian Lok Sabha elections 2014, Congress, BJP, Assam, ethnic polarization, shifting political alignments
Introduction
BJP’s thumping victory in the 2014 parliamentary elections marks a watershed in Indian politics.
Though it is too early to sound a death knell for coalition politics, a return to a system of single-party
majority, after a gap of 30 years, would have important implications for democracy and social group
alignments in the country. Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) win in 7 out of 14 seats in Assam, a Congress
stronghold since independence, is certainly no mean feat. For Congress, with only 3 out 14 seats, it
has been the worst performance in the history of electoral politics in the state. The results from
Assam are very significant since this was one state that the Congress was optimistic about stalling the
‘Modi wave’. The state recorded a massive voter turnout of 80 per cent, a jump of 11 per cent since 2009.
1 King’s India Institute, King’s College, London, UK.
Studies in Indian Politics
3(1) 69–80
© 2015 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/2321023015575215
http://inp.sagepub.com
Corresponding author:
Smitana Saikia, doctoral candidate, King’s India Institute, King’s College, London, UK.
Email: smitana.saikia@kcl.ac.uk
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