Lok Sabha Poll: Critical AIUDF-Congress-AGP fight

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The known minority stronghold of the Dhubri Parliamentary Constituency will witness a fierce fight among the AIUDF, the Congress, and the AGP. While the Congress has thrown its full weight behind its candidate to reclaim its lost ground in the constituency where its writ ran large for around forty years from 1971 to 2009, the AIUDF is trying hard to fight it out with the national party to retain the seat for the fourth consecutive term. Riding on the NDA powerhouse, the AGP is trying its best to make its presence felt in the constituency.

A five-time MLA from Nagaon's Samaguri, Rakibul Hussain, is pitted against the constituency's three-time sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal, of AIUDF. The NDA, on the other hand, has fielded Zabed Islam on an AGP ticket.

The constituency that had ten Assembly segments earlier now has 11 Assembly segments after the delimitation exercise. The LAC (Legislative Assembly Constituency) segments in the constituency are: Golokganj, Dhubri, Birsing Jarua, Gauripur, Bilasipara, Mankachar, Jaleswar, Goalpara East, Srijangram, Mandia, and Chenga.

The delimitation exercise has reset the electoral landscape in the constituency, presenting a fresh challenge to the Congress and the AIUDF. The 60 percent of voters belonging to the minority community in the Lok Sabha constituency are the deciding factors. While urban voters in the constituency comprise a minuscule 11 percent, rural voters comprise the bulk of 89 percent.

In 2009, the AIUDF emerged victorious in this constituency by garnering around 51 percent of the votes, 43 percent in 2014, and 42 percent in 2019. In 2014, the BJP candidate polled 21 percent of the votes, and in 2019, the AGP candidate polled 23 percent of the votes in this constituency.

In the constituency that was under the grip of the Congress from 1971-2009, development was never on the election agenda. The Congress won the seat with traditional minority block votes. When the AIUDF made a foray into the constituency with some commitments in 2009, the minority voters shifted their loyalty to the new party. Since then, Ajmal has been making it to Parliament without doing anything concrete on the development front since the loyalty of the minority voters is firm.

After the BJP took charge of affairs in 2016, its government in the state did a lot of developmental work in the constituency. The advantageous standing of the AGP candidate is that he has the development card with him, besides the division of minority votes in the neck-and-neck fight between Ajmal and Rakibul. To cap it all, of late, a section of minority voters has turned towards the BJP in the state. That might give the regional party the desired passage to have the last laugh.

Though Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has yet to campaign in the Dhubri Lok Sabha constituency, AGP president Atul Bora and working president Keshab Mahanta have been campaigning there in a massive way, including in minority areas.

 Also Read: Silchar: Poor gathering in Algapur angers AIUDF supremo Badrauddin Ajmal (sentinelassam.com)

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