GUWAHATI: As the Opposition Congress tries to regain lost ground in Assam’s tea belt, with national party leaders reaching out to the electorate in the gardens, the Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha (ACMS), however, is not convinced, till now, as to how the parties could make inroads ahead of the first phase Assembly elections on March 27.
ACMS, the largest trade organisation of tea garden workers in north-eastern India, maintains that the voters will trust their conscience and not the parties, or what they are promising, ahead of the polls.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Wednesday, Nabin Chandra Keot, the central vice-president of ACMS, said, “This time, the tea garden electorate will be more wary, conscious and enlightened in terms of their precious vote. They are more informed. Both Congress and BJP have not lived up to its poll promises.”
Two national stalwarts of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi have during their visits to the state, pledged to raise the daily minimum wage of tea garden workers to Rs 365.
Priyanka had during her recently concluded two-day visit to the state ahead of the polls this year, made “five guarantees” – to hike the daily wages of tea garden workers, bring a law to invalidate the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), provide five lakh government jobs, free electricity up to 200 units per household and Rs 2,000 per month to homemakers.
Slamming the incumbent party, Keot said, “BJP had, in their poll manifesto in 2016, promised three major demands – minimum wages, ST status to tea community and land patta (the tea garden land under encroachment)….though there has been a hike of Rs 30, and of late, Rs 50 in the tea wage, the workers have not received any arrears till date….The demands have not been fulfilled as promised” Keot said.
The ACMS leader further said that over past two decades, sectors like education and health, have remained neglected in the tea garden areas, even as both Congress and BJP promised development.
“After trusting Congress for 60 years, the tea community in Assam had voted for the BJP in 2016, hoping for poriborton (change), which remains elusive. Barring the last-minute schemes before the polls, BJP too, like the Congress, failed to live up to its promises. But the tea garden voters cannot be taken for a ride now…they will certainly go for conscience voting,” he added.
As it is, in the midst of a strategic campaign by BJP in the run-up to the key state Assembly elections, the Congress-led ‘Grand Alliance’ or Mahajot has upped the ante, launching a counter campaign, Assam Bachao (Save Assam), reaching out to the masses, with senior leaders making door-to-door visits and wooing the electorate ahead of the April polls.
Now, while the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) movement has emerged as the key poll plank of the Congress, gaining lost ground in the state’s tea belt – a vote bank territory for the grand old party comprising at least 42 out of the 126 Assembly seats – seems to be in its scheme of things.
“There is a visible effort by the national Congress leaders to try and gain lost ground in the tea belt as the party lost key seats to BJP in 2016. Sonitpur, Biswanath and Lakhimpur districts have a sizeable number of tea gardens after Tinsukia and Dibrugarh,” said a citizen of Tezpur town.
Assam currently has about 950 tea gardens across Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys. The tea garden vote plays a decisive role in 42 seats and impacts polls in the state.
However, the question remains as to why Priyanka did not visit Upper Assam this time, the “richest” tea belt in Assam and a zone where Congress stalwarts and influential tea community leaders such as Prithibi Majhi, and former MP, Paban Singh Ghatowar lost to “lesser known” BJP opponents five years back.
Asked why the big guns of the grand old party lost then, sources said the saffron party, back in 2016, made strong inroads in the hitherto Congress bastion, “primarily due to anti-incumbency coupled with a strategic, aggressive poll campaign by BJP, involving star campaigners for the “greenhorns”.
A Congress insider in Upper Assam said he was a tad surprised as to why Priyanka did not visit the tea belt of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia.
“From what I can perceive, it could be the ‘winnability’ factor…the chances of success for the Congress in the state’s north bank are more than in Upper Assam,” the party insider, wishing anonymity, said.