Three-cornered contest in Silchar Lok Sabha constituency in Assam

Silchar (PTI): The Silchar Lok Sabha constituency in Assam is witnessing a triangular battle royale among Union Heavy Industries minister Santosh Mohan Dev, former central minister Kabindra Purkayastha of the BJP and Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) chief and MLA Badruddin Ajmal.

The entry of Ajmal, an upcoming minority leader, into the electoral fray from the minority-dominated AUDF has added a new dimension to the poll battle this time in the constituency where Muslim votes play a crucial role.

His political detractors and voters foresee a tough going for Dev but his Congress is confident of repeating the feat this time claiming he had worked a lot for the development of Barak valley, including early commissioning of the Silchar-Lumding broadgauge line project.

Congress sources have dismissed the possibility of win of two-time winner Purkayastha during the first phase polls on April 16. "Merely dwelling on the Ram Mandir issue for poll plank is not enough for BJP to garner the votes this time", the sources said.

Blaming Congress of doing nothing for the state, BJP sources alleged Dev had failed to halt illegal migration from Bangladesh and all the ongoing projects had been planned and sanctioned by the BJP-led NDA government.

Talking to reporter here, Ajmal, who has ambitions of his AUDF becoming a national party, dismissed BJP's Purkayastha as a "weak candidate".

Maintaining the AUDF is a secular party and does not take up the cause of the Muslims only, Ajmal asserted that the Muslims in the valley had been suffering since independence.

Though Silchar is a Hindu-dominated constituency, the muslim votes play an important role in parliamentary polls here as evident during the last time when Anwar Hussain, a minority candidate of Samajwadi Party, secured nearly one lakh of the total six lakh votes polled.

After a close fight Santosh Mohan Dev won by a narrow margin of 21,320 votes over Kabindra Purkayastha who registered 2,24,895 votes.

This election, many voters are for a change as they had a lot of expectations from Dev as a union minister to work for his constituency's development.

Ramiz Ali, a rickshaw puller in Silchar town said, "there is practically no road here. Babu does not think about us rickshaw pullers. Maybe AUDF will do something."

However, Bikram Ray is happy about "the railway project that Deb has brought to the Barak valley. We, the young unemployed, are getting work as a result".

Die-hard BJP supporter Anupama Dutta said, "we have had enough of backwardness and need change of guard both here and in Delhi. We will only vote for our party candidate and ensure his victory". THE HINDU