Guwahati: After the recent debacle in the Delhi Assembly polls, the results of civic bodies polls in Assam has come as a big relief for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party won 340 of 746 municipal board and town committee wards in the state.
Election officials said while the BJP won 340 wards under 38 municipal bodies and town committees, the Congress won 232 wards under 17 municipal bodies and town committees. Regional political party Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) won 39 wards followed by the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) with eight and the Nationalist Congress Party with four wards.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) won one seat each, while 77 were won by independents, officials said.
The results came as a major setback for the Congress which has been in power in Assam since 2001. The party had suffered a lot in the last four years due to the growing difference of opinion among party leaders.
The civic polls which were held February 9 was seen as a semi final by the political parties, ahead of the state assembly polls slated for early next year.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said the results of the civic polls were on expected lines. He quoted Delhi election results quickly in his bid to slam the BJP.
He said that people discarded the BJP in just eight months.
The BJP had secured seven of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam in the 2014 elections.
