The biggest outcome of the Assam Assembly election is not the NDA’s hattrick, but the increase in its tally by over two dozen seats. A region-wise breakdown of the results announced on Monday illustrates where the 2023 delimitation exercise may have assisted the NDA in crossing the 100-seat mark in the 126-member Assam Assembly. Compared to the 2021 outcome, the only seats that the NDA has conceded in Assam – barring two won by Raijor Dal’s Akhil Gogoi in Sibsagar and the Congress’s Joy Prakash Das in Nowboicha – are those in which minority voters form a bulk of the electorate. With the NDA riding on a pitch against “illegal immigration”, a focus on development; Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma ’s popularity; a slew of welfare schemes; and ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF)’s reigning dominance in Bodoland territories, the Congress-led alliance largely failed to present an appealing counter-narrative.…