By Bhupen Goswami (PNI)

Guwahati : The BJP has expectedly won the Panchayat elections of Assam but not before conceding huge space to the Congress, which can be termed great revival for the party which was decimated just two years ago in the Assembly election. Out of 26 districts, BJP is all set to form Zila Parishad

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in 14 districts and Congress in 8 districts while one has gone in favour of AIUDF and AGP each. The regional parties, AIUDF and AGP were dumped and thrown out and made irrelevant of Assam politics. The Panchayat election of Assam this year was taken out of local issues by the leaders and accordingly the voters too voted in a particular trend, sending nervous signal to the BJP. With just handfulf Zila Parishad members to be counted, the BJP has won so far 198 and Congress 131 while AIUDF has 19 and AGP a poor 15 in their kitty. The lead of the remaining shows that BJP may end around 220 and Congress 150. Although BJP celebrated the results last night yet the party accepted internally that it was not up to the expectation and cost them dearly after AGP contested the poll alone. The biggest gainer is Congress as the Muslim votes went in favour of them and pushing it up to 130, something party never expected. The results will have serious consequences for the upcoming 2019 General election. The district wise analysis shows that BJP had done very well in the North bank and Upper Assam and in and around Guwahati city. But they have faced major fight elsewhere with Congress. It must be noted that, in former CM Tarun Gogoi’s constituency Titabar, Congress won all the 4 ZPC seats. The Panchayat poll indicated that BJP and AGP must come together for the general election. Split between the two will help the Congress. But the AGP is unlikely to go back to the BJP fold till the Constitution Amendment Bill (CAB) row was resolved. The results of Panchayat clearly shows that BJP is in a comfortable position to win only 5 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats. At present they have seven seats in the Lok Sabha.