Exit polls: Local sentiment in Assam is with Modi, the BJP’s one man army as they call him there

What is the favourite point of discussion when you have a journalist, an academician, a businessman, a housewife and taxi driver inside a cab going from Guwahati to Shillong? No guesses, it is Politics.

People from all spheres of life in the north-east want to know who is winning in Assam and the moment you tell them you are from Delhi, they want to listen more.

The counting of votes for the 126-member assembly in Assam will take place on May 19 and the exit polls have already given the verdict, and it is exactly what majority of the people from Assam want.

As per the exit polls, BJP will leapfrog through the 64-seat mark. Yes, they want Narendra Modi to win, badly!

Read again.

They want MODI to win. Assam has not voted for BJP the party, but only for the prime minister, whose wax statue recently got inducted in the much-famed Madame Tussauds.

Be it a PhD from IIM Guwahati or a housewife, who has two bagsful of household materials, they want Modi to win as they believe he will address their problems and can take the state forward.

“You will see how Modi will transform this place. He has done so much for Gujarat and is getting big companies from across the world to India. He has dreams to transform India. We believe he will bring about a change here also,” said the businessman, only to be seconded by the driver.

As we took the sharp turn in the hilly terrain through torrential rain, the housewife chipped in, “Major thing is we want to get rid of the curfew. We want Sonowal to become the chief minister who should, under the guidance of Modi, listen to our grievances. The way Modi has reached out to us, no one has.”

Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are master strategists when it comes to campaigning. Even during the Assam campaigning, various social media tools were used to woo voters.

“At least Modi is coming out in the open to speak to us. Tarun Gogoi never knew what to do with the region. We are hard working people,” said the driver.

The local sentiment is not gauged by these four people only, others in local market, shops, hotels also want him to come, which means Modi’s BJP is definitely coming to Assam, ending the 15-year Congress rule.

Modi, during electioneering, appealed to the Assamese to give him five years and lambasted Congress over water, power and employment issues.

He in fact went a step ahead to gel with the crowd and also invoked goddess Kamakhya and sang an Assamese song to connect with the locals.

“Business is not easy here. We are also fed up of migration and people from Bangladesh are a major point of contention for us,” said the businessman.

Any criticism of Modi and his government almost certainly falls on deaf ears, or people reply with a curt, “He should be given time. Rome was also not built in a day. What he is doing now, will bear fruits in next five years. People of Assam are very patient. You should be too.” I was left without a reply there.

If Modi does win the Assam battle, it will come as a huge sigh of relief after the BJP lost in Delhi and Bihar.

If at all Modi, who played his development plank once again during campaigning, wins election in Assam, he will have to deliver his ‘all-round’ development pitch. Else, voters, might not be so welcoming.

(Image: Indiatimes)