GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the NDA is committed to serving the people of the northeast region of India. Greeting the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and other allies on the success of the elections to the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in Assam, Modi in a tweet said: “NDA is committed to serving the people of the Northeast.”
“I congratulate our ally UPPL and BJP in Assam for securing a majority in the Assam BTC election, and wish them the very best in fulfilling people’s aspirations. I thank the people for placing their faith in the NDA.”
The ruling BJP, which heads Assam’s ruling coalition in alliance with Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), has emerged as the major winner as the party has won in nine seats this time. It had managed just one seat in the last BTC polls in 2015.
The BPF, which has been ruling the BTC ever since 2005 after the tribal autonomous body was constituted in 2003 as a political solution to Bodo agitation for a separate state, has won 17 seats this time while United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) bagged 12 seats.
The opposition Congress and Gana Suraksha Parishad (GSP) managed to get one seat each.
The BJP after the outcome of the BTC polls, dumping the BPF announced to support its new ally UPPL and GSP to take power in the BTC as the results of the elections to the 40-member autonomous body threw up a fractured mandate even as the saffron party made big gains.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J.P. Nadda also congratulated Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Sarma and Assam party chief Ranjit Kumar Das for the party’s success in the BTC polls, which were held in two phases on December 7 and 10 and result declared on Saturday and Sunday.