By Rabindra Nath Sinha
KOLKATA: The Congress-led opposition, despite intra- and inter-party dissentions, is slowly but steadily getting its act together to unseat the BJP-led NDA coalition, which is in power for the second term in Assam, where elections for the 126-member Assembly are expected to be held between March-end and early April. Wresting power from a regime commanded by resource-rich BJP which has a strong organisational base in this key north-eastern state is certainly a tough job for the Congress-led combine ; more so because BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, known for his aggressive tactics and defection-causing skills, is the chief minister. But, anti-incumbency, Himanta’s crude manner of targeting ‘miya-muslims [reference to infiltrators from Bangladesh] are already in the reckoning of Assam political watchers.
However, the more weighty reason is the energetic handling of party and coalition affairs by Gaurav Gogoi, who is the president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee [he is deputy leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha] and the keenness of the alliance partners to firm up seat-sharing at the earliest so as to ensure it has sufficient time to take on the Himanta-led ministry by mounting a coordinated campaign. What is standing Gaurav in good stead is his acceptability among the partners which find him decent even when he differs with them. Also, the two-day visit on Wednesday February 19 and 20 [Wednesday and Thursday respectively] of Priyanka Gandhi, who heads AICC’s screening panel for Assam, energised ground level workers.
On February 19, Priyanka released in Guwahati a “people’s chargesheet”, which termed the forthcoming Assembly election as one between the people of Assam and the Himanta-led ministry. In her remarks on the occasion, the CWC member accused the ministry of institutionalising ‘syndicate raj’ and giving the indigenous people’s land away to corporate houses. Her visit has helped in two ways; first, the Congress began the candidate selection process in right earnest on Monday in New Delhi. Secondly, the visit helped in diluting the adverse impact on party workers of the appended defection of immediate past PCC chief Bhupen Borah and some other district-level leaders to BJP for which Himanta was on job for the past some weeks [Bhupen, who had been assigned election-related responsibility by the Congress, formally joined BJP on February 22 with his followers].
The alliance partners of the Congress are Raijor Dal led by somewhat controversial and hard bargainer Akhil Giri, who is also an MLA from Sibsagar, Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) headed by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, CPI, CPM, CPI-ML (Liberation) and Karbi Anglong district-based All-party Hill Leaders’ Conference of which John Ingti Kathar, a former IAS officer, is the chief. In Assam’s electoral politics, because of insignificant presence, RSP and FB do not find a place in this coalition.
Significantly, for the upcoming Assembly polls, this coalition will fight without Badruddin Ajmal’s All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and Bodo People’s Front (BPF) as partners. BPF was earlier a constituent, but after the autonomous administrative area elections last year, it joined hands with BJP. Kanak of CPI told IPA the alliance had consciously decided to distance itself from AIUDF because of its “rank communal politics”. The non-BJP Opposition sternly opposes the saffron party’s communal and polarising tactics. AIUDF’s politics is no different. “Therefore, how can we align with them?”
Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress has been trying to establish a toehold in Assam politics. TMC has identified 30-40 seats for fielding candidates both in Ujani (Upper) and Namoni (Lower) Assam. “We will be on our own”, party’s senior V-P Dulu Ahmed told IPA. The party affairs are being overseen by West Bengal’s labour and law minister Moloy Ghatak, he informed [Sushmita Dev, a former chief of Congress’ women’s wing and daughter of Congress veteran Late Santosh Mohan Dev, who switched over to TMC a few years back heads the party’s state unit. She is a Rajya Sabha member from TMC].
Seat-sharing with AJP, CPM, CPI and CPI-ML (Liberation) does not pose much a problem to the Congress because they do not generally make claims disproportionate to their ground-level strength. CPI-ML (Liberation), for example, has sought five seats. But, they can be persuaded to tone down their demand. The party’s state secretary Vibek Das said they were waiting for talks with the Congress. The alliance leader’s main task is to formalise seat with Akhil’s Raijor Dal. He is firm on contesting on 15 seats and wants to have a decisive say for certain seats in the minority-dominated areas, where the Congress is banking on solid support.
Moreover, the Congress is firm on contesting on 100 seats, out of the total of 126 seats. The dilemma for the Congress arises from the apprehension that Akhil may be in touch Himanta, who will be too happy to have the latter’s outfit as a constituent of the BJP-lead NDA. Raijor Dal did not do that well in the 2021 Assembly elections but it performed well in the last panchayat elections. Which proved its support base would stand the Congress-led combine in good stead. Gaurav, reports suggest, has urged Akhil to be rational in his demand.
CPM’s state secretary Suprakash Talukdar, when asked what is his assessment about the challenges and prospects, told this correspondent: “We do not underestimate rivals ; we know BJP has organizational and funding clout. But, Himanta’s handling of sensitive issues, such as, probe into music Zubin Garg’s death in Singapore in September last, treatment of minorities, land deals have annoyed large sections of the people. We have to finalise seat sharing at the earliest and launch a coordinated campaign against the administration’s lapses and instances of corruption. We do have an opportunity to turn the situation in our favour. This regime can be dethroned, Talukdar observed.
Meanwhile, it is learnt that the BJP top brass, taking note of the chief minister’s caustic remarks about ‘miya muslims’ has asked him to be careful and desist from using indecent language. (IPA Service)
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