Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the people of the state have 'blessed' them and that he is confident that they will form the government. In the 126-member Assam Assembly, BJP is leading with 80 seats while Congress is leading in 46 seats, as per the trends at 1:20 pm.
"People have blessed us. We can say for sure that the BJP will form the government in Assam. We are coming back to power with our partners AGP and UPPL," Sonowal told reporters.
When asked if the ruling coalition will be able to bag 100 seats, as claimed by the saffron camp ahead of the polls, he said, "The trends are completely in favour of the BJP. The party will achieve its target. However, we will have to wait for the final results."
The BJP is looking to create history by becoming the only non-Congress government in the state to win consecutive terms. This election season was different for BJP in the state as Assam is the only place where it was fighting to retain its power.
The BJP fought this year's election in alliance with Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) and the Gana Suraksha Party (GSP). They faced competition from two sides -- Congress-led Grand Alliance along with minority-backed All India United Democratic Front, the Bodoland People's Front and marginal players such as Anchalik Gana Morcha, Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI and CPI (Marxist-Leninist) and secondly from the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal that emerged out of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019.
The three-phased elections in the state took place at a time when the second coronavirus wave was starting. As many as 79.93 per cent, 80.96 per cent and 82.33 per cent people turned out in the three phases respectively to vote.
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