Advantage Congress
Exit poll results predict that the Congress will emerge as the single largest party in Assam, set to win about 50 seats in a house of 126.

North East News Agency

IF exit poll results are to be believed, Congress will emerge as the single largest party in Assam. However, the party will fall short of majority. The Hindu-CNN-IBN poll has given the Congress in Assam between 52 to 60 seats in the 126-member Assam State Legislative Assembly, while two Assamese newspapers also gave the Congress a distinct edge over their rivals. The local dailies also predicted that no single party would get a majority in the elections.

The two-phase elections concluded recently. Nearly 73 per cent of the total 17.4 million voters exercised their franchise.

Though three major political parties are in the race, experts predicted that Congress and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) would fight for the top two positions, while BJP would come third.

The Hindu-CNN-IBN poll has given the AGP between 25 to 31 and the BJP 10 to 15 seats.

Asomiya Khabar gave the Congress between 50 to 55 seats, and the AGP between 30 to 35 seats. According to the Asomiya Khabar poll, BJP will get 10 to 15 seats.

Dainik Janambhumi, another popular Assamese daily, predicted that the Congress would win 52 to 57 seasts, while AGP’s tally would be around 20 to 25.

It may be mentioned here that in the 2001 assembly polls Congress won 71 seats and the AGP 20. BJP, which contested the election as an ally of the AGP in the 2001 elections, won eight seats.

As expected, Congress camp is in jubilant mood as exit polls predicting that it will emerge as the single largest party. However, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that “I am confident we are going to get the required majority to form the government. The exit polls could prove wrong as we would get more seats.”

On the other hand, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) is confident that it, along with its allies, will form the next government in the State. It has already thanked the people of the State on their coming out in great numbers to give their anti-Congress and anti-BJP verdict in the polls. AGP arrived at electoral adjustments with the Communist Party of India (CPI), the CPI-Marxist (CPI-M), the Autonomous State Demand Committee-United (ASDC-U), the Trinamool Gana Parishad (TGP) and the Bodoland People’s Progressive Front -Rabiram (BPPF-R).

“We are going to sweep the polls. The exit polls were done superficially without going into the realities,” AGP leader Apurba Kumar Bhattacharyya said.

Lok Sabha MPs Sarbananda Sonowal and Dr Arun Kumar Sarma claimed that the people’s verdict was in favour of the AGP and its electoral allies. “We are very confident that we will get absolute majority and form the Government  in the State with Brindaban  Goswami as the Chief Minister,” they said. The MPs further stated that the Asom elections had set the stage for formation of the third alternative of the regional, democratic and secular forces of the country to counter the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The first phase of Assembly elections in the State held on April 3 gave the AGP and its allies a comfortable position and after the second phase of the elections it has become evident that the regional party and its allies will be able to sweep the elections. Going by their moods, it is now evident that the voters of the State have denounced the Congress and the BJP, they claimed. On the other hand, BJP leadership claimed that the party is expecting to win in 15 seats.

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