CAB test for BJP, allies in last phase polls in Assam

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill that triggered protests in the run-up to Lok Sabha elections in Assam could be the deciding factor for BJP and its allies in the third and final phase of polls on Tuesday.

Guwahati, Barpeta, Kokrajhar and Dhubri in Assam and Tripura West seats are going for polls on Tuesday.

BJP has replaced its sitting MP Bijoya Chakraborty with Queen Oja in Guwahati, while it gave Dhubri and Barpeta to Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Kokrajhar to Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), its regional allies. Dhubri and Barpeta are Muslim majority constituencies, while Kokrajhar has sizable Muslim votes.

Both AGP and BPF had faced the public ire for being with BJP despite strong protests by the state’s indigenous people.

In Guwahati, Oja has bright chance in her fight against Bobbeeta Sharma of Congress but AGP and BPF are set to have tough battles from Maulana Badrudin Ajmal-led AIUDF in Barpeta and Dhubri. Ajmal, the sitting MP in Dhubri, is seeking re-election while he replaced his brother Sirajuddin with Rafiqul Islam in Barpeta.

Tough fight

Veteran politician and social welfare minister, Pramila Rani Brahma, who has been fielded by BPF in Kokrajhar is likely to face a tough fight from sitting MP Naba Kumar Sarania and AIUDF-backed Urkhao Gwra Brahma. Both are against the citizenship bill saying it would destroy the identity of the indigenous people like the Bodos, who constitute nearly 33% votes in Kokrajhar seat.

AGP had walked out of the BJP-led alliance in the state a day after the bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 7 but it restored the alliance before the Lok Sabha polls. BJP is contesting in 10 seats, AGP in three and BPF in one as per the seat sharing arrangement.

Elections for 10 other seats were held on April 11 and 18.

AIUDF had won both Barpeta and Dhubri in 2014 but according to election observers, the party’s popularity among its Muslim vote bank was declining, mainly due to its failure to help the NRC dropouts. Ajmal said he decided to contest only in three seats (Karimganj is the third) this time in order to allow Congress to defeat BJP in rest of the seats.

Manmohan's vote

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a Rajya Sabha member from Assam and his wife Gurcharan Kaur will cast their votes in a polling station in Guwahati on Tuesday. Singh, a Rajya Sabha member since 1991, was re-elected to the Upper House in 2013. His term will end in June this year. Former Assam chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia had offered Singh to contest for the Rajya Sabha seat in Assam and had made him a tenant in his house at Dispur in Guwahati.