‘BJP will lose if it keeps playing religion card’: Congress after Panchayat poll debacle

Biswanath, May 14: Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Borah, on Wednesday, launched a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), warning that the party’s alleged reliance on religious polarisation could cost it elections across the country.

“If the BJP continues to do politics based on Hinduism and Islam, they will lose Assam as well,” Borah said on the side-lines of an inauguration ceremony in Biswanath.

Citing recent electoral outcomes in other states, he added, “Himachal Pradesh has a 96% Hindu population — Congress defeated the BJP there. In Karnataka, 85% of the population is Hindu, and we won. Even in Telangana, where 84% are Hindus, the BJP lost to us.”

Borah’s remarks come in the wake of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) sweeping victory in the recent Panchayat elections. The ruling alliance secured 300 out of 397 Zila Parishad seats and 1,436 of the 2,192 Anchalik Parishad seats.

When asked about the Congress’s underwhelming performance, Borah downplayed the defeat, describing the margins as narrow and attributing the loss to the advantages typically enjoyed by ruling parties.

“If we analyse trends from the past two decades, it’s clear the party in power in Dispur usually does well in Panchayat polls. Back in 2013, when Congress was in the government, the BJP could win only 15 Zila Parishads. This time, we lost about 40 Zila Parishads by around 500 votes each, and many local members lost by just 100 votes,” he said.

Admitting that the party had hoped for better results, Borah pointed to organisational challenges. “There were limitations. When you're in power, those constraints don’t exist. While we could issue tickets, we couldn’t offer full support — not me as state president, nor the district and block presidents. That’s a fact we must accept,” he said.

Despite the setback, the APCC chief said the morale among Congress’s grassroots workers remains intact. “The BJP focuses on divisive politics, but the Congress only thinks about the people of Assam,” Borah asserted.

Borah’s reaction came as a response to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s remarks about the Saffron Party making inroads into minority dominated areas, which are considered to be strongholds of the Grand Old Party.

Addressing the press on Tuesday, Sarma, while sharing Panchayat polls results data, had said that the party's resounding victory was not only in traditional strongholds but also due to the party’s expanding footprint in constituencies with large minority populations.

Sarma highlighted that the BJP had previously been successful in regions with around 45% minority population, but this time, the party made an impact even in constituencies with 90-100% minority demographics.