GUWAHATI: The last four of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls on Tuesday with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) hoping to break the parliamentary election jinx after 10 years.
Guwahati, Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Dhubri are the four seats going to polls. The AGP, which is a BJP ally, is contesting from Barpeta and the Muslim-majority Dhubri seats.
The AGP’s Zabed Islam will take on the might of three-time sitting MP Maulana Badruddin Ajmal of the All India United Democratic Front and former minister Rakibul Hussain of the Congress in Dhubri.
The AGP fielded the veteran Phani Bhushan Choudhury in Barpeta. He will vie against Deep Bayan of the Congress among others. Both Islam and Choudhury are the NDA’s consensus candidates.
On the eve of the polls, AGP president Atul Bora expressed confidence about the party’s poll prospects. “I have closely watched the poll campaign across the state and I am confident. We got a good response from people. People will vote for the NDA candidates in all four seats,” Bora said. He predicted the end of “Ajmal era” in Dhubri after this election.
“That Ajmal is frustrated was reflected when he threw away his mike and cried (during election campaign),” the AGP chief said, adding, “He knows he could do nothing for the people. People will reject him as well as the Congress.” Bora was equally optimistic about Barpeta.
“Our candidate (Choudhury) has a wider acceptance. Had it not been so, he would not have won the Assembly elections from Bongaigaon eight times on the trot since 1985,” Bora said.
The AGP was born out of the bloody Assam Agitation of early 1980s and ruled the state twice – from 1985-90 and 1996-2001.
Post-2001, it significantly lost the popular support until its virtual rebirth in 2016 when it had stitched an alliance with the BJP.
The last time the AGP won a Lok Sabha seat was in 2009 when the party’s tea tribe leader Joseph Toppo was elected from Tezpur (now Sonitpur).
Meanwhile, the contest in Guwahati will be between the BJP’s Bijuli Kalita Medhi and the Congress’ Mira Borthakur Goswami.
Three women have represented Guwahati in the Lok
Sabha so far. The first to be elected was Renuka Devi Barkakati of the Janata Party in 1977. The BJP’s Bijoya Chakravarty was elected in 1999. The third is sitting MP Queen Oja, also of the BJP.
As in Guwahati, a straight contest is expected between Joyanta Basumatary of the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) and Kampa Borgoyari of the Bodoland People’s Front in Kokrajhar which is reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The UPPL is a BJP ally.
Two-time sitting MP Naba Kumar Sarania is not in the fray. His nomination was rejected as he had submitted an “invalid” ST certificate.
Dip in women candidates, but female voters matter
Despite Assam having more women voters, only 12 female candidates are contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, down from the previous count of 14. These 12 women candidates are competing in seven out of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The state has a total electorate of 2,45,72,144 with 1,23,39,241 women voters and 1,23,25,293 male voters. This declining trend in women candidates has been continuing since the 2014 polls when there were 16 female aspirants. The ruling BJP has fielded one woman candidate, Bijuli Kalita Medhi, for the prestigious Guwahati seat, while the opposition Congress has nominated Mira Borthakur Goswami in Guwahati and Roselina Tirkey in Kaziranga