Guwahati: The coronavirus pandemic has cost the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) strongman Hagrama Mohilary his 17-year governance of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). The council’s term ended on Monday and state governor Jagdish Mukhi took the decision to take control over the BTC until elections are held when the time is conducive. Mukhi is the constitutional head of BTC, a Sixth Schedule area.Rajesh Prasad, the principal secretary to the state government, has been appointed as the administrator to the BTC to superintend and direct the entire administration.The council was formed on February 10, 2003. It was the result of an accord between the tripartite parties of the Centre, the state and former Bodo insurgent leaders. Elections to the BTC were first held in 2005 and has been ruled by the BPF ever since, until Monday.On March 20, elections to the BTC’s 40 member-council seats, spread over districts like Kokrajhar, Chirang, Kokrajhar and Baksa, were deferred on account of the threat of COVID-19. The election was scheduled for April 4 and results were supposed to be declared on April 8.The news of the governor assuming control of BTC, coming in around late evening on Monday, has officially ended the five-year-old term of the ruling BPF and its head Hagrama Mohilary. The strongman, along with social welfare minister Pramila Rani Brahma and Rajya Sabha MP Biswajit Daimary, had been pressing for the BPF’s rule to be extended by six more months, or elections to be held soon.Hagrama Mohilary. Photo: Facebook/We Support Hagrama MohilaryThe BPF is an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government in Assam. Minister Brahma, some days ago, said that the election can be conducted in the Bodoland Territorial Region as no COVID-19 cases have been reported there.According to a news report by InsideNE, a northeast based web portal, Biswajit Daimary on Monday said that the term of the BTC’s term must be extended as per certain provisions of the Indian Constitution.“The Election Commission has been unable to provide answers, the State Government has been unable to provide answers, thus we hope the decision will be taken as per the Constitution. In the first provision of the 6th Schedule’s 6A states clearly that in case the Government has ruled for 5 years and elections are not held, the Governor can extend the Government by 1 more year, and if the crisis period continues, it can be extended by another 6 months,” said Daimary.Opposition parties welcome moveThe news that the governor will assume charge of the BTC has been welcomed by political opponents of the BPF. The United Peoples Party (UPPL) and its leader Pramod Bodo, independent Lok Sabha MP from the Kokrajhar constituency Naba Kumar Sarania, and Brajen Mahanta advisor of O-Bodo Surakhsa Samiti and Gana Suraksha Party (GSP) have spoken positively of the development, with some of them even calling it a sign of a “new dawn”. The opposition parties have claimed that the region has been reeling under the BPF’s ‘corruption’ and ‘misrule’.Some of them, including Pramod Bodo, Sarania and Mahanta, have all expressed opposition to the BPF’s rule being extended. They met chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and the governor to express this sentiment and even submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Pramod Bodo, speaking to The Wire, said the news of governor Jagdish Mukhi taking charge of the BTC is the “sound of justice” to the people of the region. “For 17 years, the Bodoland Territorial Region and its people have suffered and governance has been fractured. The governor’s rule will be better for the people,” he said. He criticised minister Pramila Rani Brahma for saying that elections should be held immediately as there are no reported cases of COVID-19 in region, calling it “highly irresponsible”. “A new dawn has begun for the people of the region,” he said.Sarania was with the BPF’s term coming to an end, “It is not just the non-Bodo communities but also the Bodo communities that are getting tired of the misrule of the BPF for the past 17 years. We have to be extra careful as the pandemic has taken such a toll in human lives in and around the world and we have to act responsibly.”Speaking to The Wire, Brajen Mahanta of O-Bodo Suraksha Samiti said, “This is, of course, the beginning of a new start in the region. We have demanded that governor’s rule should be imposed in BTC, where the BPF has been looting the people for these 17 years. Both Brahma and Daimary have been misleading the people by quoting the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. They have no knowledge about the Sixth Schedule,” he said.BJP hints at ‘innovative idea’ to hold electionsWhile the BJP had previously supported the idea of extending governor’s rule, on Monday, it hinted at an ‘innovative idea’ to conduct elections to the BTC.Transport and industry minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, addressing the media on Monday on the present situation of the lockdown, said that during a cabinet meeting a had been taken to conduct election through an “innovative idea”. The state government will appeal to the State Election Commission to conduct elections. Patowary, though, did not divulge much on what the ‘innovative idea’ is. Patowary’s statement came just a few hours prior to the news of the governor taking control of the BTC.