National Narrative and Regional Subtext: Understanding the Rise of BJP in Assam

Abstract

The unprecedented mandate in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam necessitates a careful understanding of the growth and consolidation of the party in the state. The BJP’s rise in the state can be understood in the backdrop of a favourable social base which has perceivably shifted from the Congress in recent years. Many factors have been responsible for this shift identifiable through a withering Congress dominance and political stagnancy of the AGP. An understanding of the political shift in Assam with the concomitant rise of the BJP is incomplete without a look into the party movement dialectics marking BJP politics. A blatantly vocal Hindutva rhetoric has been cast aside opting instead for a regionalized portraiture of Hinduism in the state. In this, localized sects and symbols have been inducted into the BJP’s campaign which infused a strong sense of regional identification among the mass of electorate.