Guwahati: The Opposition Congress has become friendless in the Northeast despite making all attempts to forge an alliance for the Lok Sabha election. Its fight has now turned into a test of survival.
The party has eight MPs in the outgoing Lok Sabha. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working out a strategy to expand its base, the Congress has to struggle for its survival.
It is noteworthy that till five years ago, the region was known to be the stronghold of Congress. Most of the states of the region came into existence during the Congress regime. In fact, the party had very few regional alliances. It had succeeded in defending its fort even after many regional alliances.
The Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the turning point. Since then, the Congress has been ceding ground to the BJP and its allies — first, Assam followed by Manipur, Aruna-chal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and finally, Mizoram. In Tripura, it went from being the primary Opposition party to not winning a single seat in the Assembly election last year. Its fate in Nagaland was similar. The Congress is now left with hardly any footprint in the region.
However, the leader of the Congress legislature party, Debabrata Saikia, is confident of improving the performance of the party. “We will have to ensure that secular and traditional vote bank of the Congress doesn’t divide,” he said admitting that they have to regain the ground lost to the BJP and some communal political parties as well as minorities.
The traditional base of the Congress among the tea community had started eroding with saffron flags dominating the majority of the garden areas since 2016.
The slide was more visible in the last rural polls when the grand old party lost miserably to the BJP almost in all the tea gardens of Brahmaputra as well as Barak Valley.
“The votes from the tea community can decide the fate of elections. There are 104 tea estates in the Barak Valley, which are known to be strong Congress base. The scene has started changing. This was evident from the last rural election,” said Intuc-affiliated Barak Cha Shramik Union assistant general secretary Dinanath Baroi.
“When the Congress was in power, they would get rice for Rs 20 per kg, now they get the same for only Rs 3. The BJP government is giving a subsidy of Rs 17. They have also been getting sugar almost free of charge. If BJP promises to provide free oil, potato and other items, the community would believe them. The tea workers are only concerned about the present. They are not worried about the future,” said the leader.
Senior Congress leader Mr Saikia who has been working hard in the tea gardens of Upper Assam said that the BJP has messed up with the communal harmony of the region.
“Over the past five years, this government has made a mess of everything handed to it by the UPA government. Just imagine the situation in the Northeast if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill had been passed. BJP wants to create a situation in the Northeast similar to the one they have created in Jammu & Kashmir,” he added.
Asserting that the BJP has failed to fulfil any poll promise, Mr Saikia said that the Congress will never allow the culture, language, society of the Northeast to be destroyed.
He said that the Congress has also promised the six communities of Assam fighting for tribal status that the issue will be taken up within six months of its coming into power. “The party president Rahul Gandhi has assured a delegation of the six communities from Assam that the Congress will not bring the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and will continue to oppose it if the party comes to power,” said Mr Saikia adding that the Congress is going to polls with a resolve to retrieve its lost ground in the Northeast.
