Assam election results 2021: Did BJP’s silence on CAA pay off?

In the Assam Assembly elections, the BJP swept the state and is set to form the government for the second consecutive time.

However, in December 2019, after the Centre passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Parliament, the BJP had faced violent protests in Assam, leading to five deaths in police firing.

In BJP's campaign leading up to the election in Assam, they carefully avoided playing up the CAA. On the other hand, the Congress took a strong anti-CAA stance and promised it will not implement the legislation in Assam if it came to power. It was part of the party’s five guarantees to the voters.

When the BJP's manifesto for the state was released, party president J P Nadda said, “CAA has been passed by Parliament... It will be implemented in letter and spirit.”

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The Congress, as well as new regional parties, tried their best to keep the CAA issue alive, with the Congress promising a law to repeal the Act, but the issue found little traction as the BJP avoided it during the campaign.

What was notable was that BJP appeared to have a differing stance regarding the CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and West Bengal. In Bengal, BJP it will implement the CAA if it comes to power there, but in Assam they said CAA cannot be changed through state legislation and did not commit to its implementation.

In its manifesto for this election, BJP committed to preparing a corrected NRC to protect genuine citizens and detect undocumented infiltrators to protect Assam’s civilisation.

As per a report by Hindustan Times, BJP leader Pabitra Margherita said the CAA did not have any impact on the polls. “Our party’s stand on the issue has always been clear that we support the legislation. On the other hand, the Congress, AJP, and Raijor Dal tried to mislead the public by giving the impression that 19 million people from Bangladesh would swarm into Assam if CAA was implemented. The voters did not fall for that lie.”

Kaustabh Deka, a professor of political science at the Dibrugarh University, said the BJP has been able to successfully stop the resentment against the CAA. “The party kept the debates during election campaign outside the CAA ambit.”

Ahead of the polls, the Congress had promised to repeal CAA. The party maintains that the citizenship law is “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional” as it “violates” Articles 14 of the Indian Constitution that guarantees equality under the law to all persons irrespective of creed, caste or gender.

Besides the Congress, two new regional parties, one of which is led by jailed peasants rights activist Akhil Gogoi, had highlighted CAA prominently in their poll campaigns.

Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal stressed on regional identity and announced distance from both the BJP and Congress. This proved beneficial for BJP as there was a split in opposition votes.