GUWAHATI: The stage is set for elections to the 126 assembly seats in Assam on Thursday.
An Opposition front, comprising Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI(M), CPI(ML), and All Party Hill Leaders Conference, will take on the might of the ruling BJP-led NDA, which is seeking a third straight term in power. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland People’s Front are the two other NDA entities.
The NDA had an aggressive poll campaign, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
The NDA wooed voters by promising to drive out the “infiltrators,” sustain the state’s development trajectory, maintain peace and solve the perennial problem of floods.
The Congress’s biggest promise was that it would ensure justice for singer-musician Zubeen Garg within 100 days of coming to power. He died while swimming in a sea in Singapore in September last year, and there is a demand in Assam for justice for the larger-than-life music icon.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leaders such as Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Gaurav Gogoi spearheaded the party’s election campaign, targeting the Chief Minister particularly.
The polls will decide whether the NDA can defeat anti-incumbency or if the Congress, which ruled the state for 15 years (2001-16) under former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi until being ousted from power by a resurgent BJP, can rise from the ashes like a phoenix.
The results may impact the elections in ethnic violence-hit Manipur next year, and in Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya in 2028. The BJP had opened the gateway to the Northeast by winning Assam in 2016, even as the Congress continued to lose its ground in the region that it ruled for most part.
The BJP fought the 2016 and 2021 elections under Sonowal’s leadership. This marks the first time that Sarma is leading his party into an election. He spent over two decades in the Congress before joining the BJP in 2015. During the campaign, Amit Shah appealed to people to make Sarma the Chief Minister again by voting in favour of the NDA candidates.
The high-voltage election campaign was marked by controversies.
Congress leader Pawan Khera had claimed that Sarma’s wife possesses passports of three countries, owns luxury properties in Dubai and has investments worth several lakh crore rupees in the United States. She lodged an FIR with the Crime Branch police station in Guwahati and the Assam Police are now searching for him. The Assam Police claimed about recovering “incriminating” material after a search at his New Delhi residence on Tuesday.
As for Sarma, he ruffled quite a few feathers by claiming that Sujata Chowdhury Gurung, mother of Assam Jatiya Parishad’s (AJP) Guwahati Central candidate Kunki Chowdhury, is a beef eater.
Altogether 722 candidates, including 59 women, are in the fray. The prominent candidates include Sarma, Gogoi, ministers Pijush Hazarika, Jayanta Malla Baruah (both BJP), leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia (Congress), All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi, AGP president Atul Bora, AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi, and United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) chief Pramod Boro.
The Congress fielded the highest number of candidates at 99, followed by the BJP (90), AIUDF (30), AGP (26) and UPPL (19).
The constituencies to watch will be Guwahati Central, Dispur, Jorhat, Mariani, Sivasagar, and Tamulpur.
In the Guwahati Central seat, Kunki, who is London-educated, is pitted against Vijay Gupta of the BJP. Jorhat will see a battle between Gogoi, who is also the Jorhat MP and state Congress president, and the BJP’s Hitendra Nath Goswami.
A triangular contest is expected among BJP’s Pradyut Bordoloi, Congress’s Mira Borthakur Goswami and independent candidate Jayanta Kumar Das in the Dispur seat.
In Mariani, Raijor Dal’s Gyanashree Bora will try to end the 35-year rule of the Kurmi family. The 34-year-old PhD holder and former college teacher is up against five-time MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi of the BJP.
Sivasagar braces for a contest between Akhil Gogoi and BJP’s Kushal Duwari, who is a former member of the insurgent group United Liberation Front of Assam. Tamulpur is likely to witness a battle between BJP’s Biswajit Daimary and Pramod Boro.
There are altogether 2,50,54,463 eligible voters – 1,25,31,552 males, 1,25,22,593 females, and 318 from the transgender community. A total of 6,42,314 are first-time voters aged 18–19.
The state has 31,486 polling stations – 27,711 of them in rural areas and 3,775 in urban areas. Altogether 3,716 polling stations will be managed by women and 23 by persons with disabilities.
The Dalgaon constituency has the highest number of voters (3,17,110). At 1,00,494, the Amri constituency has the lowest number of voters.