The stakes in the third and final phase of Lok Sabha election on Tuesday is high for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s allies for contrasting reasons in Assam and Tripura. The election will also be a test of the popularity of perfume baron Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front.
Campaign for five seats – four in Assam and one in Tripura – ended on Sunday.
The Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People’s Front, the two regional allies of the BJP, are contesting three of the four seats in Assam. While the AGP is contesting Barpeta and Dhubri, dominated by migrant Muslims, the BPF is contesting the Kokrajhar seat.
In the Tripura East constituency, the challenge for the BJP is as much from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Congress as it is from its ruling ally, the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura. The tribal party ignored the alliance to field MLA Narendra Chandra Debbarma against the BJP’s Rebati Tripura.
The IPFT, which won eight out of nine Assembly seats it contested in 2018, could wrest the Tripura East seat from the CPI(M)’s Jitendra Chaudhury. The Left Front has won the seat 12 times since 1952, consecutively since 2004.
Winner replaced
In Assam, on the Gauhati seat the BJP replaced two-time winner Bijoya Chakravarty with former Guwahati Municipal Corporation Mayor Queen Oja. The party is facing a challenge from film and TV personality Bobbeeta Sharma of the Congress besides Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika, who seeks to cash in on the “disillusionment” of the indigenous people with the BJP because of its push for the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The Bill has been a major issue in Barpeta and Dhubri where more than 60% of the voters are migrant Muslims. The last non-Muslim who won here was CPI(M)’s Uddhab Barman in 1996 (Barpeta).
Apart from Mr. Barman’s consecutive victories, the Barpeta seat has been a Congress stronghold until the AIUDF’s Sirajuddin Ajmal wrested it in 2014. The AIUDF has replaced him with Rafiqul Islam, but the party has been battling a slide since the 2016 Assembly elections. The Congress has fielded MLA Abdul Khaleque in Barpeta while the AGP has fielded former RS member Kumar Deepak Das.
Dhubri has followed a similar trajectory with Badruddin Ajmal breaking the Congress monopoly in 2009. This time, he has a strong Congress rival in former MLA Abu Taher Beparti. The AGP’s candidate here is Zabed Islam.
In Kokrajhar, where non-Bodos account for over 70% of the voters, the choice is between the Independent incumbent MP and former extremist Naba Kumar Sarania and Social Welfare Minister Pramila Rani Brahma of the BPF.