First win for the BJP
What happened
The Bharatiya Janata Party won power in Assam for the first time, in a landslide that ended Congress's hold on the state.
It took 60 of the 126 seats.
That left it short of the 64-seat majority mark on its own.
It governed instead through the NDA alliance — a group of parties that team up to fight an election together, and share power afterward if they win enough seats between them — which crossed that mark with 86 seats.
The Indian National Congress finished second with 26 seats.
The campaign
On 23 August 2015, Himanta Biswa Sarma, a senior Congress leader and former minister, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi, becoming a lead BJP campaigner in Assam.1
In December 2015 Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi announced that incumbent Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi would again be the party's chief ministerial candidate, as Gogoi sought a fourth consecutive term.2
Addressing a rally in Kokrajhar on 19 January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an alliance between the BJP and the Bodoland People's Front for the election.3
On 28 January 2016 the BJP named Sarbananda Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate.4
On 2 March 2016 the BJP completed a three-party arrangement by allotting the Asom Gana Parishad 24 of the state's 126 seats, alongside the earlier Bodoland tie-up.5
- 1Himanta Biswa Sarma Quits Congress, Joins BJP — Himanta Biswa Sarma, 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election
- 2Rahul Gandhi Names Tarun Gogoi as Congress's Chief Ministerial Candidate — 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election
- 3Modi Announces BJP-BPF Alliance at Kokrajhar Rally — 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election
- 4BJP Names Sarbananda Sonowal as Chief Ministerial Candidate — 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election
- 5BJP Announces Seat-Sharing Alliance with Asom Gana Parishad — 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election
What changed
The INC government collapsed as the BJP grew from a marginal presence into the largest party in the house.
It went from 5 seats at the previous election to 60 this time.
Most of the seats that changed hands moved from the INC to the BJP, 50 of the 88 in all.
Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, rose to 84.6% — the highest Assam had recorded up to that point.
Notable numbers
The tightest finish was at Barkhola, Assam, decided by 42 votes.
Statewide, the INC actually polled a higher vote share than the BJP, 31.0% to 29.5%, even though it won far fewer seats.
Mankachar, Assam recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 93.9%.
Dispur, Assam was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 3,57,638 names on its rolls.
Karimganj South, Assam drew the most crowded ballot in the state, 25 candidates in one race.
NOTA — None of the Above, a ballot option letting voters formally reject every candidate on offer — drew 1,89,085 votes, 1.1% of the statewide total.
The backdrop
One of the parties that joined this election's governing alliance traces back to the Assam Accord, signed on 15 August 1985 to end a six-year agitation over immigration and set 1 January 1966 as the cutoff date for detecting foreign nationals.6
Movement leaders then founded the Asom Gana Parishad, which won the assembly election held later that year, with its president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta becoming Chief Minister.6
That party remains part of Assam's politics today, allied this time with the BJP.6
- 6Assam Accord Signed, Asom Gana Parishad Formed and Wins Power — Assam Accord, Asom Gana Parishad