The 2019 elections, held against the backdrop of massive protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, were seen as a litmus test for the Bharatiya Janata Party in terms of retaining its base among the state’s indigenous communities that were bitterly opposed to the bill. The party’s success in neutralising opposition to the controversial bill amongst non-Muslims and diverting attention towards the increase in the percentage of Muslim population, marked a continuation of the trend witnessed in the 2016 assembly elections, when it managed to patch up a “rainbow coalition” with regionalist groups raising the issue of protection of land and identity from “illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants.”
