Difficult to choose the right candidate

There is a section of politicians and MLAs who think that they are indispensable. Hence, they also think that they should be renominated by their respective parties in every election. Yet, the fact remains that most of such politicians do not know – or rather, they do want to believe – that the people, the voters, do not want them. Likewise, there is another section of politicians and MLAs who consider the constituencies which they once or twice represented to be their personal property or fiefdom. As such they think that their respective political parties should give the ticket to their son or daughter – sometimes their wife – after they grow old doing nothing significant for their constituencies. Such unhealthy traditions were introduced by the Congress party and were later picked up by most other parties including the BJP and the AGP. The people of Assam have been witnessing such things for many decades, and the ongoing Assembly election too has been no different. In the Congress party, for instance, several veteran leaders and former MLAs/ministers were seen hankering for a party ticket for their sons and daughters, and a few cases even for their wives. It is however a matter worth appreciating that the Congress party took a bold stand against such hankerings and shut the door on such politicians. Some of these MLAs, ex-MLAs and ex-ministers were so hurt that they even resigned from the party out of anger and frustration, little realising that no other person except probably their immediate kith and kin have been feeling bad about the so-called deprivation. The other category of politicians was seen in the Asom Gana Parishad, with several MLAs having a mindset that they, and only they are worthy of contesting an election. A few of them have been MLAs for five to six terms or more. But, taking a close look one will find that they had neither done anything worthwhile for their respective constituencies and electors, nor for Assam. About contributing towards the growth of the regional party, the less said the better. Take for instance the case of former Chief Minister Mr X. Only people belonging to constituency A will be able to tell better, but it is a fact that the constituency has not witnessed any significant positive change in the past 35 years. While the per capita income of the people of constituency A has not increased significantly, no institution or industry providing better education and jobs have been established there in the past three decades and a half. Families dependent on agriculture have also remained mostly at the same level as they were in the 1980s, while very few educated youth from constituency A have found meaningful employment. Mr X is however not an exception, but an example of what most long-serving MLAs have done or not done to their respective constituencies. One will probably find the same scenario in constituency B, one represented by late Mr Y, one of the most powerful Chief Ministers of Assam, and subsequently represented by one of his sons. Roads of constituency B have remained the worst, whether during the heydays of the former Chief Minister or during the period when his son Mr Z occupied an important position in the 14th Assam Legislative Assembly. In fact it has been the same in the case of most of the politicians and MLAs, who are meaninglessly called 'leaders' but most of whom do not possess the qualities of a leader. What the people of Assam have also observed in the past few decades is that many persons nominated by different political parties – whether Congress, AGP, BJP, CPI(M) or any other – and many of whom have been elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly, do not even try to understand what the basic needs of their respective constituencies are. This was evident in the case of many members of the 14th Assam Legislative Assembly whose term is coming to an end in the middle of May, and that exactly was why many of them failed to carry out their basic duty of getting various things done for their respective constituencies. This is one reason why a number of sitting MLAs of different parties have been denied renomination by their respective parties. There is yet another category of politicians who win elections because of a wave. There are several such 'leaders' who had won the 2016 Assembly election by riding on the Modi-Sonowal wave, and people of several constituency will agree that they had elected a useless person because there was no better alternative. And with so many different considerations that come into play while selecting candidates by different political parties, it is often very difficult for the masses to identify the right person as their MLA.