States »EasPosted at: Mar 30 2021 5:58PM `Madhepura’ of Assam braces for electoral battle where caste lines run deeper
Abhijit Deb.
Guwahati, Mar 30 (UNI) It is the `Madhepura’ of Assam, with the majority of electorate in this constituency, tracing their roots back to Bihar and Jharkhand mostly belonging from the Yadav group, makes Lakhipur assembly constituency a near clone of Laloo Yadav’s bastion, where caste lines run deeper.
The constituency has Gowala’s, who are major constituent of the Yadav group are working in the tea gardens, and also has a sizebale Bhumihaar population, who are Brahmins.
Lakhipur seat is part of the Silchar Lok Sabha constituency, which falls in the Barak Valley region of Assam, which is nearly 40 km away from Silchar town.
RJD chief Tejaswi Yadav’s election rally in the constituency on March 27 turned out to be one of the biggest public rally in the Barak Valley in the election season.
This seat also assumes significance as the sitting MLA of Congress Rajdeep Goala resigned from his post to join BJP just few months ahead of the elections.
Interestingly, BJP denied him the ticket in 2021 assembly elections from the seat, from which he resigned to join the saffron camp.
Moreover, Rajdeep’s father late Dinesh Gowala who represented the seat for consecutive seven terms is a cult figure in the area just like what Laloo means to Yadavs.
“It is the Madhepura of Assam, there were lot of similarities. Majority of the people in this area belong from the backward and some from the upper castes, who migrated to this place from Bihar and Jharkhand centuries ago. The BJP has given candidature to a Bhumihar, Kaushik Rai, who is an outsider,” said Ratnajyoti Dutta, Delhi based political analyst who keeps a close tab on the politics of the region.
Congress has fielded Mukesh Pandey, who is a businessman. Newly floated Asom Jatiya Parishad has given ticket to Muslim candidate Alimuddin Mazumdar.
However, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for Silchar Parliamentary constituency BJP was ahead in the Lakhipur Assembly segment. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls Congress led from this Assembly segment.
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