Guwahati, Jun 4 (PTI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Tuesday that the NDA lost the Lok Sabha seats in Nagaland and Meghalaya as leaders of a particular religion worked against the ruling alliance.
He also stated that it was an achievement for the BJP-led NDA to bag 11 seats out of the total 14 in Assam, a state with 40 per cent Muslim voters.
Talking to reporters at the BJP state head office here, Sarma said, “Leaders of a particular religion openly worked against BJP and NDA in Nagaland and Meghalaya, and that religion has tremendous followers. That made the difference.”
The Congress won the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland, while the two constituencies of Meghalaya went to the Voice of the People Party and the Congress.
Sarma claimed losing the seats in these two states was "not political defeat", while also maintaining that leaders of that religion "usually do not interfere in politics".
“This time, for whatever reason, they interfered, even in Assam also. They have worked openly against NDA,” the BJP-led North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor claimed.
Pointing that BJP or its allies were in power in all the North Eastern states, except Mizoram, Sarma said, “Initially people told us that we won NE by defection. But with BJP returning to power for a third term in Arunachal Pradesh, we have shown that we win by development and not defection.”
On possible expansion of NDA alliance partners at the national level, the Assam CM said that it will be for the prime minister to decide at a later stage.
“The NDA has absolute majority, there is no crisis. The allies are meeting tomorrow, then the prime minister will be elected and he will take oath at a chosen date. After that, if he feels necessary, the PM will reach out to more parties,” he said.
“For us, coming to power for the third time is a big time. We must enjoy and celebrate the victory,” he added.
Sarma also claimed that not only has Narendra Modi equalled the late Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of becoming the prime minister for the third time, the BJP leader will also emerge as the longest-serving PM in due course of time.
On BJP and its allies winning 11 seats in Assam, Sarma said, “I am happy that with 40 per cent Muslim votes, I could give 11 seats to the party.”
The CM maintained that he was expecting victory in 11 seats, with a fifty-fifty chance in another seat but which did not come through.
“Even (ex Congress CM) Tarun Gogoi never won 11 seats. We won in 94 out of 126 Assembly segments today,” he said.
BJP failed to retain Jorhat with Congress’ Gaurav Gogoi grabbing it by a margin of over 1.4 lakh voters, while Congress’ Rakibul Hussain wrestled Dhubri from AIUDF with a margin of more than 10 lakh votes.
“Hussain’s victory margin is more than that of even the prime minister and the home minister. That needs to be analysed,” Sarma said.
The BJP leader also claimed that Congress has managed to corner all Muslim votes, which were earlier split between the grand old party and AIUDF, pointing out that the party has also retained the Muslim-majority Nagaon seat.