Counting of votes for Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election in Assam is currently underway after polling for 40 seats of the BTC took place in two phases on December 7 and 10.  The election was scheduled for April 4, but it was postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As per the early trends, the ruling Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) led by Promod Bodo were in a neck to neck fight. While UPPL is leading in 20 seats, BPF is ahead on 11. The Bharatiya Janata Party is leading on 3 seats at present, Congress and AIUDF in one each.

The election assumes significance as it is the first election in BTR after the signing of the Bodo peace accord and the formation of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) earlier this year.

Over 78 percent voter turnout was recorded on Thursday in Bodo Territorial Council’s (BTC) second and final phase of polling, which witnessed police firing in the air to control a clash between BPF and UPPL supporters in Chirang district of Assam. Till the closing of polls at 4.30 pm, 78.80 percent of 10,23,404 voters had exercised their franchise, deciding the fate of 111 candidates for 19 constituencies spread across Kokrajhar and Chirang districts.

Ahead of the assembly polls in Assam which is scheduled in 2021, the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) election has become the ‘semi-final’ of 2021. BJP is contesting against its own ally party Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in this election.

BPF is an ally party of the BJP-led Assam government since 2016 and BPF has ruled Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD) which covered four districts Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, and Udalguri in the last one and half decades.

The much-awaited voting for the BTC began on December 7 with over 77.01 percent of voters exercising their franchise in the first phase of polling for 21 seats in Udalguri and Baksa districts, where 130 candidates had contested. Out of the total 3,164 polling booths in the four districts, the authorities had marked 606 as very sensitive and 1,266 as sensitive, and arranged tight security measures in those.

A total of 23,87,422 voters in the two phases have exercised their franchise to elect their representatives for the local council, formed in 2003 and elections being held since 2005.