AUDF's Ajmal brews Congress worry

Silchar, a key Lok Sabha constituency in south Assam that goes to the polls on April 16, has grabbed attention for sundry reasons.

First, the big question doing the rounds is whether this economically-backward constituency will live up to its fame of being a communally-polarised arena. Or have its voters matured enough to exercise their right to franchise purely on civic and economic issues.

Second, there are expectations that prime national issues may hog the limelight once campaign intensifies.

Surrounded by sylvan hills, this parliamentary constituency has a voter count of 978,460 with the male electorate outnumbering their female counterparts by 49,889 in this seat that covers seven Assembly segments.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the constituency. The farmers, numbering about a little over two lakhs, raise only sali crop which is harvested every year from November onwards after a farming season that lasts for five months.

For the remaining months, most of them look for odd jobs to make ends meet. The literacy rate in this constituency is still on the lower side — at 68.42 per cent.

Lack of proper road connectivity appears to be the main reason for the backwardness of this constituency.

Another reason for the distressing plight of the people in the district is lack of industrialisation, both in cottage and heavy industries, fuelling unemployment among the youths.

Biswajit Gupta, 42, a teacher, said: “The lack of the employment opportunities in Cachar is unbelievable. As a result, hundreds of educated youths, particularly those who have been groomed in science and technology, choose to migrate to other cities in the country in search of jobs.”

This Lok Sabha seat has traditionally been a strong Congress bastion. Since the first general election in 1952, the Congress has been winning it, except on three occasions. In the 1974 bypoll it lost to the CPM. In the 1991 and 1998 parliamentary elections, the BJP won the seat.

The Congress triumph, according to the poll watchers, can be attributed to the polarisation of Muslim votes (they comprise 37 per cent of the electorate) and the tea community, accounting for about 11 per cent of the total electorate.

The Muslims and the tea estate workers comprise the main vote bank of the Congress.

The Muslims fear that the victory of the BJP will spell problems for them while the tea tribes generally vote for the Congress as the party has a strong labour trade union, the legacy of which dates back to the 1930s.

In Cachar, generally the Intuc-affiliated Cachar Cha Sramik Union rules the roost.

But political observers say the disillusionment among tea workers with the Congress is growing and may reflect in the garden votes.

The entry of AUDF leader Badruddin Ajmal, too, is also likely to change the poll equations.

There is a possibility of Ajmal weaning away the Muslim votes in Cachar, a majority of whom sent Union heavy industries minister Sontosh Mohan Dev as a Congress MP to the Lok Sabha five times in the past.

The last time Dev won the seat was in 2004 when he defeated BJP stalwart and former Union minister Kabindra Purkayastha by over 20,000 votes. He, however, lost to Purkayastha in 1998.

Dev is bound to feel uncomfortable in Silchar against Ajmal, throwing a vital challenge to him by trying to wean away large chunks of the Muslim vote.

Sources in the local election office said 1,049 polling booths would be set up this time — one more than in 2004.

A total of 5,334 poll officials will be mobilised to ensure peaceful polling.

Around 689 booths have been identified as “sensitive” with 293 among these classified as “very sensitive”. THE TELEGRAPH