Assam: It was BJP vs Cong

In Assam, 2015 has been a year of political rumblings. A perfect dress rehearsal for 2016, Assam will witness crucial and closely contested Assembly polls where the BJP would like to grab power from the Congress which has been ruling the state since 2001.

2015 was marked with political dissidence faced by Chief Minster Tarun Gogoi from within his own party, led by his one time close aide and former minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Sharma is now the main trump card for the BJP in Assam.

Sarma with 9 other Congress MLAs have left the party to join the saffron ranks.
The state also saw two major reshuffle in the state cabinet to dowse flames of dissidence.

 The year also marked with several stand off between the acting Governor P B Acharya and the state government.

The Congress had egg on its face when party legislator Rumi Nath was arrested and sent to judicial custody for nexus with pan-Indian car theft racket. She is now out on bail.

Ultras
In terms of law and order, while 2014 had ended in a horrific note in Assam with the killing of 70 Adivasi people in the state by NDFB(S) militants in last week of 2014, the year 2015 saw a heightened operation against the NSFB(S) in the Bodoland area of the state. The backbone of the group has been broken with several encounters of top cadres and arrests.

2015 also saw several unrelenting killings of the one-horn rhinos in their turf in the Kaziranga National park. Instead of take firm action both, the Centre and the state made it a political issue and blame games continued.

Congress
The ruling Congress was completely routed in the civic polls in the state.
Assam also saw four massive waves of floods. Floods affected two million people. Soon it became another issue of political rhetoric between the Centre and the state on fund allocation. While the Centre claimed it gave enough funds, Gogoi is still saying that Assam is being treated in with a step motherly attitude by the Modi regime.

The land swap deal between India and Bangladesh generated resentment in Assam, many civil society groups also were upset when Centre allowed citizenship to Hindu refugees settled in Assam from Bangladesh.

The focus shifted to Guwahati this year when the Sheena Bora murder case unfolded.
The CBI teams visited Assam several times to quiz Mikhail Bora, the brother of Sheena and son of the main accused Indrani Mukerjea. Indrani originally hailed from Guwahati.

The biggest news to end the years for Assam was the return of ULFA foundergeneral secretary Anup Chetia to Assam after he was deported from Bangladesh.

The last week of the year saw Chetia’s release after 18 years of being in jail, the news of him joining the ongoing ULFA peace process is perhaps will rekindle fresh hope of peace in the state.
DH News Service