GUWAHATI: Though the entire northeast rejoiced after the Centre failed to table the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in Rajya Sabha the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) feels that they will gain from the move in the 2019 elections.
An executive member of the Assam BJP, talking to G Plus in condition of anonymity said, “BJP will gain in 2019 from the entire controversy.”
According to the member, in West Bengal there are many Hindu Bengalis whose relatives are in Bangladesh or who have entered India after 1951 or 1971, and they were backing the bill. Even though the bill was not tabled in Rajya Sabha, BJP has managed to woo these Hindu Bengalis. A similar calculation can be done in Barak Valley and many districts of Assam.
He revealed that in districts like Mangaldai, where people perceive that the indigenous people will not vote for BJP, the perception is incorrect as even the indigenous people of Mangaldai want that the Hindu population should increase in the district and the bill has garnered positive feedback.
The BJP member claimed that even in upper Assam only the groups against the BJP protested against the bill; the voters who voted for BJP never protested.
A former Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) councillor and a BJP member Rajkumar Tewari said, “The bill controversy has helped the BJP as all the Hindu voters of the entire country have appreciated the move and even if the bill was not tabled, the support of the Hindu voters has intensified.”
