With an estimated 95 percent Muslim population, the village of Rupahi in Assam’s Nagaon district was buzzing with unprecedented energy as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma arrived to address a rally. Despite being a hostile territory for a BJP Chief Minister, particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism of his predecessor Manmohan Singh, Sarma was greeted with enthusiasm by nearly 10,000 people.
The Chief Minister mingled with the crowd, who showered him with affection and left scars on his arms in their frenzy. The mood was upbeat, and the crowd erupted in joy when Sarma took to the center stage and danced and sang like a rockstar. The visuals were incredible, showing Sarma engaging with Bangla-speaking Muslim voters despite his history of making statements against Muslim immigrants.
The same scene was repeated in neighboring Samaguri, another Muslim-majority area, where the assembly has been with the Congress party. In 2016, Sarma could not campaign here as his vehicle was attacked by the crowd. This time, the crowd greeted him with flowers, as if he was a long-lost beloved returning home.
Sarma’s popularity stems from his delivery of jobs, roads, and a sense of freedom from local corruption. He promised further development projects, including a cold storage, a hospital, and a stadium. He also announced plans to monitor the geo-tagging of PM Awas Yojona himself to free them from the corruption of local politicians.
The people trust Sarma’s promises as he has a delivery track record in Assam. Most of them have got the benefits of welfare schemes without having to bribe middlemen. That’s why, in Rupahi, they were happy when he asked them to start physical training to prepare for the Assam police recruitment test to be held in July.
His close aides say there is no need to rake up any religious or communal issue or even make any conciliatory statements to these Muslim voters. It’s an experiment based on the confidence of Sarma’s performance as CM in the last three years. “In the last three years, most of these poor Muslims have got benefits from welfare schemes that they never got during previous regimes. The middlemen cornered those,” says one of Sarma’s aides.
If this experiment succeeds, it may provide a healthy campaign paradigm for the rest of India.
