New Delhi: In a setback to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fared badly in the autonomous council elections of the Bodo Territorial Region (BTR). Sarma, who led the party’s campaign through marathon rallies, had gone ahead with the polls without continuing the ruling alliance of the BJP with the United People’s Party-Liberal (UPPL) in the hope of dissociating itself from the anti-incumbency faced by the local party. He had told reporters that whichever of the two major local parties would win the elections, BJP would tie up with it, thereby hinting at a fractured mandate of the elections, held on September 22.However, the counting of votes of the elections for the 40 constituencies showed that the opposition Bodo People’s Front (BPF) has swept the polls, cornering 29 seats, while the other local party with which BJP had an alliance, the UPPL, could pocket only seven seats. BJP itself could win only five seats. The voting of the Council elections was held through paper ballot. Counting began on September 26. While UPPL had won 12 seats in the last polls, BJP had got nine of them. In the last elections, BPF had been the single largest party, having won 19 seats on its own. The 2020 polls of the Council that comprises five districts of western Assam bordering Bhutan were held just after the Narendra Modi government had announced a new peace agreement with the then All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) leader Pramod Boro; the armed group National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) leader Ranjan Daimary, and the representatives of the United Bodo People’s Organisation. While Union home minister Amit Shah had claimed early this year that “82%” of that agreement was fulfilled, the major promises of the peace accord remained unfulfilled even five years after the agreement was signed with a lot of fanfare by the Modi government. In an interview to The Wire during the elections, BPF chief Hagrama Mohiliary had said the 2020 peace agreement couldn’t bring “any real benefits” to the region which is under the Sixth Schedule and categorically stated that his party would win the polls. Hagrama, during his campaign, had told reporters that he would not allow the Sarma government to carry out eviction drives in the BTR region and will instead push for the provision of land to the landless so that no household has to face homelessness. After winning the polls on September 27, he reiterated that promise. The BPF was in alliance with Congress during the Tarun Gogoi government for 10 years, after which Hagrama shifted to the BJP and was part of the Sarbananda Sonowal-led coalition government in 2016. However, he fell out with Sarma when during his regime, the BJP brought it a new Bodo Accord discarding the one singed with him in 2005. The 2020 accord led to the rise of UPPL in alliance with the BJP. Together, they formed the Council in 2020 after toppling BPF. Sarma’s move was also necessitated because Mohilary had opposed power sharing with a national party like the BJP in a council formed under the Sixth Schedule.Assam goes to elections early 2026 when the Sarma government will seek to return to power. After the delimitation exercise, the BTR region has 15 assembly segments, though the total number of assembly constituencies of the north-eastern state has remained at 126.