Enthusiastic first-time voters turn up to cast their votes in Dibrugarh

Staff Correspondent

Dibrugarh: Voting here started with a long queue in the early morning and the crowds got engorged beneath the blazing sun in most of the urban polling centres. While in contrast, crowds during that period thinned out in the rural polling centres.

More than 3 lakh tea community voters from about 300 tea estates in this constituency have always played a key role in framing the fortunes of the candidates and especially Dibrugarh was considered as a Congress bastion, since the party has been winning this seat consecutively in each LS polls since Independence. AGP candidate Sarbananda Sonowal, however, did break the myths of Congress win by snatching the seat in 2004.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate, Rameswar Teli, with the help of Modi wave, bagged the Dibrugarh seat in 2014. It remains to be seen whether Teli maintains this pattern again by defeating the Congress candidate, former Union Minister and president of Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangha, Paban Singh Ghatowar. However, many feel that the anti-incumbency factor will hamper the prospects of Teli, but ground reality is that he can overcome the hurdle in the race due to division of tea voters. While, as per others’ opinion, this time voters have no choice except to vote for Congress. “To know the result one should wait for May 23, the date of counting,” said Monoj Bedia, a tea community voter at Khanikar.

A number of youths belonging to the tea community as well as a section of local Assamese community during interaction with us, said, “A large number of cross-section of people told us to vote for the lotus, so we did.” On enquiry, this reporter came to understand these people were not local and familiar to the area. In Jokai we found few youths, both boys and girls, who had just cast their votes for the first time. They said, “It felt good to use the VVPAT machine. It was quick and ensures your voting in the screen within seven seconds.”

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