Guwahati: With a Modi wave discernible in the Upper Assam strongholds of Congress, the traditional bastion of the party among tea workers in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur may hold the key to the fortunes of Congress in the first phase of polling in Assam on April 7. For, the BJP wave seems to have stopped short of the Congress citadel among tea workers in these constituencies.
If the size of the crowd in election rallies is any indication, than Modi is way ahead in four of the five Lok Sabha constituencies that will go to the polls in Assam on April 7 in the first phase.
The crowd sizes in rallies addressed by three of the star campaigners of Congress – Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh – are nothing compared to the capacity crowds that Modi had drawn in his election meetings in these areas. People from all walks of life, caste and religion attended Modi’s rallies. Attendance was also good in all three election rallies of BJP president Rajnath Singh’s election rallies in Assam on Sunday.
“Don’t go by the size of presence of crowd in BJP rallies in urban areas to make your opinion. Mark my words,” as Dipak Gupta, a 50-year-old ‘paan’ shop owner at Digboi refinery town under Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency said. “I have seen many elections in this part. The tea workers know only one party Congress and only one election symbol, ‘hand’. Of course there has been some change in the scene in last few years among educated section of tea works but that is insignificant.”
Barring Congress which has been maintaining a base among tea workers since Independence, no other political party including the BJP has any formidable base among these illiterate, poor tea workers for whom election means the ‘hand’ symbol. Tea workers are the dominating segment of voters in Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur constituencies. They also hold sway in Kaliabor constituency.
As the BJP’s increasing popularity is going to create division of votes belonging to other communities among different political parties, it is the tea workers who can save Congress this time too as they had done on many occasions earlier.
Congress has fielded Union Minister Paban Singh Ghatowar from Dibrugarh, Bijoy Krishna Handique from Jorhat and Tarun Gogoi’s son Gaurav Gogoi from Kaliabor and hopes to swing votes mainly on the strength of its ‘popularity’ sizeable voters among tea workers. Ghatowar himself is from the tea workers community and is a leader of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), an INTUC affiliated union of tea workers that works for Congress among tea workers (Adivasi) voters in Assam.
BJP has fielded two young leaders from the tea community Rameswar Teli and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa from Dibrugarh and Jorhat constituencies respectively to wean away voters among tea workers’ community. However, the party has fielded Mrinal Saikia, an Assamese, from Kaliabor.
AGP has fielded Anup Phukon, Pradip Hazarika and Dr Arun Kumar Sharma from Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Kaliabor constituencies. BJP poses main challenge to Congress in Dibrugarh and Jorhat constituencies while it is expected that AGP will cause concern for Congress in Kaliabor.
Congress is facing an internal squabble in Jorhat constituency with a section of Congress being opposed to the candidature of veteran Bijoy Krishna Handique. There are over 3.6 million workers in over 800 organised tea gardens in Assam that contribute more than half of country’s tea production. Tea gardens have remained focus areas for political parties with the Congress, BJP and AGP going the extra mile to woo the voters ahead of every election. Out of these tea gardens almost half of them are located within these three constituencies.
Various organisations representing the tea garden workers have criticised the political parties for failing not only to fulfill tea workers community’s aspiration for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status and better socio-economic condition.
To woo tea workers Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi recently announced Rs 100-crore scheme for the Adivasi community (tea workers). BJP however, accuses Congress of exploiting tea workers as a vote bank all along. “We have been observing the presence of huge crowd in BJP rallies in urban areas. But we are not much worried as the BJP has not been able to make much inroad into our bastion among tea workers. We have engaged our party workers for micro level campaigning among tea workers and no other party is capable of doing this,” said a Congress district level campaign manager in Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency.