GUWAHATI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to make another round of whirlwind election tour of Assam on Thursday when five of the constituencies in the state will go for polls in the first phase.
Narendra Modi is scheduled to address three election rallies in the state on Thursday . He will start with an election rally at Kamalpur under Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency. He will then address two more election meetings, one in Mangaldai Lok Sabha Constituency and another in Silchar Lok Sabha Constituency in South Assam’s Barak Valley, a senior BJP leader informed.
Election to these constituencies will be held in the second phase polling on April 18 next. The PM has had already hit the campaign trail in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura for the first phase election to woo voters for the BJP and its allies in the region.
In the first phase election the BJP is trying to retain Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Jorhat and Tezpur Lok Sabha seats even as the party sources admitted that there would be very keen contest in Jorhat where BJP has fielded former All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) leader and an incumbent minister in Assam, Topon Gogoi instead of the sitting MP , Kamakhya Prasad Tasa. The Congress has fielded a youth leader Sushanta Borgohain.
Even though the BJP’s promise in its poll manifesto to bring back Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and get it passed in the Parliament, has triggered loud protests from various indigenous groups in the state especially those from Jorhat and Dibrugarh Lok Sabha Constituencies in eastern Assam, the saffron party leaders here don’t foresee any major swing of votes away for the party to advantage of its opposition.
Even as the BJP leaders here sound optimistic about retaining four first-phase constituencies, the sizeable Muslim minority votes are going to decide the fate of BJP ally, AGP’s candidate Moni Madhab Mahanta in Kaliabor Lok Sabha Constituency. He is pitted against sitting MP, Gaurav Gogoi of Congress , who is the son of former Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi.
With the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) not fielding any candidate in Kaliabor, the possibility of division of Muslim minority voters has been wiped out and that may act against Mahanta’s prospects for the AGP’s ties with the BJP.