National Narrative and Regional Subtext: Understanding the Rise of BJP in Assam

Vikas Tripathi, Tamasa Das and Sandhya Goswami

Studies in Indian Politics, 2018, vol. 6, issue 1, 60-70

Abstract: The unprecedented mandate in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam necessitates a careful understanding of the growth and consolidation of the party in the state. The BJP’s rise in the state can be understood in the backdrop of a favourable social base which has perceivably shifted from the Congress in recent years. Many factors have been responsible for this shift identifiable through a withering Congress dominance and political stagnancy of the AGP. An understanding of the political shift in Assam with the concomitant rise of the BJP is incomplete without a look into the party movement dialectics marking BJP politics. A blatantly vocal Hindutva rhetoric has been cast aside opting instead for a regionalized portraiture of Hinduism in the state. In this, localized sects and symbols have been inducted into the BJP’s campaign which infused a strong sense of regional identification among the mass of electorate.

Keywords: Assam; assembly elections; BJP; Congress; AGP; AIUDF; BPF; BTAD; Hindutva; indigeneity; minority; Muslim; regional; national; tribal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:indpol:v:6:y:2018:i:1:p:60-70

DOI: 10.1177/2321023018762676

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