Guwahati: Congress will walk into Assam’s new assembly with 19 lawmakers, 18 of them Muslims and just one Hindu, in what appears to be a new trend of Muslim voters opting for the grand old party instead of a regional group this year.In the house of 126 members, the opposition bench will have 24 members, of which 22 are Muslims. Apart from 18 Muslim MLAs, the other Muslim MLAs include two from AIUDF and one each from TMC and Raijor Dal.The only two Hindu faces in the opposition are Akhil Gogoi, president of Raijor Dal who retained his Sibsagar seat and Joyprakash Das of Congress, who won the Naoboicha seat that significantly has a considerable number of Muslim voters.Significantly, all Hindu sitting MLAs of Congress have lost.The delimitation has already limited the number of seats with Muslim voters as a decisive factor to 22, with CM Himanta Biswa Sarma saying: “It is very unfortunate that all but one MLA in Congress follow Islam.”“The fact is all Hindu candidates of Congress have lost except one. I am not trying to say that Hindus or Muslims have won. I am only giving the data, and it is for you to analyse the data,” Sarma told reporters after the election results.He had earlier predicted that there was no conducive atmosphere in Congress for Hindu samaj.“That is why we called Pradyut Bordoloi and Bhupen Kumar Borah to the BJP. We appeal to all the good, visionary Hindu leaders in Congress to come to the BJP platform looking into the future of Assam and unitedly protect Assamese people from invasion of Bangladeshi miya,” he added.
