Gautam Roy’s writ runs in Karimganj Lok Sabha seat

Karimganj Election

HAILAKANDI, April 13 – The triangular contest among the candidates of Congress, BJP and AUDF is on the cards in the Karimganj (SC) Lok Sabha seat of Barak Valley. Altogether 15 candidates are in the fray and they are Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya (INC), Sudhangshu Das (BJP), Rajesh Mala (AUDF), Prabhas Chandra Sarkar (SUCI), and 11 Independent candidates who are – Uttam Namasudra, Joy Das, Debashis Das, Bijoy Roy, Bijoy Namasudra, Malati Roy, Ranjan Namasudra, Rajesh Roy, Lokendra Chandra Roy, Sital Prasad Dushad and Himangshu Kumar Das.

The political mentor of existing MP Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya, Minister Gautam Roy has declared that his candidate (Suklavaidya) will win by the margin of about 1.5 lakh votes without any contest. In the last general election in 2004, Gautam Roy grabbed Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya, a retired official of Education Department, and projected him as candidate of Congress in the seat denying ticket to the two-time MP Nepal Chandra Das. During that time also Gautam Roy announced that he will win in the seat and the margin will be 1,00,000 defeating BJP candidate Parimal Suklavaidya and Suklavaidya won the seat with the similar margin. The deprived existing MP Nepal Das then contested with the ticket of Janata Dal (United) and he could not pose any hurdle for the Congress. After the election Das joined in the AUDF. Before this year’s election, Gautam Roy managed him to join the Congress. Roy also managed some BJP and AUDF members to join formally in the party just after the submission of nomination.

Political experts here are of the opinion that earlier Nepal Das was the rubber stamp of Gautam Roy and due to this he won the seat twice with the blessings of Roy. And later Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya replaced Das. In all the campaigns before the last general election, Gautam Roy leveled allegation against Nepal Das that he doesn’t know English and Hindi and failed to do any developmental works but on the other hand, Suklavaidya knows English and is very much competent to manage the Delhi officials for the sanction of developmental schemes. Roy is now hopeful that with the entry of Das again in the party, the margin of Congress votes will be increased.

Surprisingly, there is no specific issue of campaign in this constituency, Congress’ main poll plank is the developmental activities undertaken in both Hailakandi and Karimganj districts by Gautam Roy. On the other hand, BJP’s main poll plank is the corruption of Congress and using Lalit Mohan Suklavaidya as rubber stamp of Gautam Roy. The tea garden voters (about 1,71,000) play crucial role in the Karimganj politics. Sambhu Singh Mala, BJP candidate from Ratabari Assembly segment who belongs to the community also won the seat in 2006 Assembly poll. In the last Lok Sabha poll, the tea garden voters were divided and they voted for both Congress and BJP. On the other hand, Muslim voters (4,95,000) are the key factors in this seat. As the seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste and the Muslims don’t have their own choice, they usually support Congress as secular force in order to stop the entry of BJP.

The main strategy of both Congress and BJP is to woo the voters through small meetings in both urban and rural areas. The date of poll is April 16 here but almost all the parties are least interested in parties banners and posters. Rather they are conducting meetings and doing door to door campaign.

The AUDF candidate Rajesh Mala is now a challenge for Congress candidate as Mala is very much popular in the tea gardens and a large section of minority voters have already extended their support to him.

The constituency has 8 Assembly segments 5 in Karimganj and 3 in Hailakandi. The total voters of the seat is 10,67,910. Of them, 7,16,506 are male and 6,44,261 are female voters. The D-voters of the district are 3127.

The total polling stations of the constituency are 1229. Of them, the district administrations have identified 414 as sensitive and 462 as hyper sensitive polling booths.

The district administrations of both Karimganj and Hailakandi have also taken elaborate arrangements for holding free and fair poll. In Hailakandi district altogether 300 anti-social elements have been taken into custody as precautionary measure before poll. It may be mentioned here that the panchayat poll in January, 2008 last was marred with the large-scale violence, booth capturing, assaulting of poll officials in Hailakandi district and now elaborate security arrangements have been made this time. The Deputy Commissioner of Hailakandi, Tapan Chandra Goswami informed that they have requested to provide 37 companies of security forces. ASSAM TRIBUNE