Tea tribes a deciding factor in Assam elections

Constituting nearly 35 per cent of Assam's total electorate, the tea tribe community of this tea heartland is always in the limelight during elections as different parties go out of their way to woo it.

Living and working in enclaves removed from the surrounding local population, the tea tribes are usually a marginalised community but come any election, political parties descend on them with promises galore coupled with unlimited wining and dining.

Tea labourers drawn mostly from Jharkhand and parts of central India are the key constituents of upper Assam constituencies of Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Kaliabor, parts of Nagaon and Lakhimpur which go to polls tomorrow.

Traditional congress supporters, the tea labourers have sent their own community member and Assam Pradesh Congress president Paban Singh Ghatowar to parliament for five consecutive terms since 1995.

Ghatowar is, however, facing stiff opposition from another community member Kamakhya Prasad Tassa, former general secretary of the All Assam Tea Tribes Students' Association (ATTSA), contesting as a BJP candidate.

The BJP has campaigned hard in these constituencies to make inroads in the tea belt and dent the Congress bastion. Earlier, it was ghatowar alone who symbolised the communities hopes and aspirations but now other parties, particularly the BJP have made all out efforts to steer them away from the Congress fold.