GUWAHATI, Jan 6—The rout of the regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is almost complete with the Congress stealing the wind from their sails in the race for gaining power at the panchayat level. However, due to the delay in computing the figures conclusively, a final official announcement is still awaited. According to information available with the State Election Commission office here till 7 pm today, results of 345 seats for the Zilla Parishad Members (ZPM), 1,658 seats for Anchalik Parishad Members (APM), 1,730 seats for Gaon Panchayat Presidents (GPP), 11,753 seats for Gaon Panchayat Members (GPM) have been declared. Of these, the Congress has secured 282 ZPM seats, 1,127 APM seats, 1,220 GPP seats and 6,443 GPM seats, with the Independents and some small parties trailing far behind with 33 ZPM seats, 352 APM seats, 324 GPP seats and 2,984 GPM seats to their credit.
The AGP could secure only 12 ZPM seats, 86 APM seats, 92 GPP seats and 1,265 GPM seats, while the BJP secured 18 ZPM seats, 93 APM seats, 95 GPP seats and 1,061 GPM seats. The results of the panchayat elections were, however, beyond the expectations of even the Congress members while the AGP or the BJP also could not foresee such a drubbing for them at the hand of their arch rival Congress. Both the parties have to pay a heavy toll perhaps for their failure to initiate the process of development particularly in the rural areas. AGP provided the Congress another leverage to derive an additional mileage with its failure to hold the panchayat elections during its tenure. However, further consolidation of the Congress at the grassroots level will depend mostly on the party’s willingness to divest the panchayats with more power, while failure or reluctance in this score may prove counter productive for the party in the days to come.