By Jayanta Kumar Goswami,
As the 16th Lok Sabha elections approach, people in the Northeast gear up to exercise their democratic franchise in a peaceful manner. Looking at the voters’ enthusiasm and importance of the 25 seats available in the region, stalwarts of almost all political parties, especially Congress and BJP have thronged the state capitals here to woo the voters.
Otherwise known as Congress bastion, the party, however, will find it difficult to improve its position in the region this time. In 2009, the party had secured 13 seats, while the BJP got four. Known for its rich forest and mineral resources etc., this underdeveloped region is being neglected year after year by the Centre despite the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh representing Assam in parliament for the past 23 years. This has created a severe anti-Congress sentiment among a large section of voters, especially the new voters of the region. Even Rahul Gandhi had to clarify on this issue when he met some selected sections of voters during his previous visit to the NE. Taking this as advantage, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Modi, during his recent visit to Guwahati, promised the people of the region to solve some of the burning issues of the NE, including the issues of NRC update, sealing the Indo–Bangla border to check further influx of Bangladeshis, burgeoning unemployment, the recurring floods and erosion and issues relating to militancy etc., if voted to power this time “If a simple BJP worker had got the opportunity to represent any one state of the region for such a long time in Parliament, he would have done much better than what PM Saheeb has achieved,” Modi said in his customary style in Guwahati recently.
“Congress leadership, especially Rahul has to work overtime to overcome the damages caused by Mr Singh in NE. People of this underdeveloped region had lots of expectations from their elite MP. But he has failed miserably over the years. However, the Congress party has a strong base in this region and the party knows how to woo voters during polls,” Prof Ghana Kanta Sharma, a retired college teacher, said. Meanwhile, the failure of the BJP leadership to make an alliance with regional party, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), in Assam, which has 14 seats, like previous year to keep the non-Congress votes intact may give some respite to the Congress think tank. The alleged understanding between Congress and AIUDF, the main opposition force in Assam, may also shatter Modi’s hope in Assam.
Meanwhile, the last date to file nomination papers for the 1st phase of election came to an end on Friday evening. In Assam, the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 7 are Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur. The fate of union ministers Paban Singh Ghatowar (Dibrugarh) and Ranee Narah (Lakhimpur) would be decided in the first phase.
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The writer is a journalist based in Guwahati with working experience of over 14 years. and can be contacted at [email protected].