Rajdeep Roy’s Chemistry Outdoes Sushmita Dev’s Arithmetic

Special Correspondent

SILCHAR: If the BJP leadership was serious to regain the prestigious seat of Silchar, so was the Congress to retain it. Confidence was more on the side of the Congress because during the Modi wave of 2014, the saffron stalwart and the founding father of the party in Northeast Kabindra Purkayastha met the Waterloo in his battle against Sushmita Dev. AIUDF supreme Badruddin Ajmal in order to facilitate the easy sailing of Sushmita Dev then did not put up any candidate from his party for the Silchar seat. In 2019, it was the same strategy by Ajmal which however failed to pay off. Dr Rajdeep Roy won comfortably by a margin of more than 80,000 votes.

Dr Rajdeep Roy said the myth Muslims don’t vote for BJP has been broken. The second myth as he pointed out unless there is a triangular fight involving AIUDF or any other party of reckoning, victory will be elusive for saffron party on this seat has also been demolished. In place of AIUDF, this time it was NPP candidate Nazia Yasmin Mazumder who miserably failed to cut into Muslim votes, one of the major deciding factors. Muslims, the traditional vote-bank of Congress, constitute around 39 per cent of the total votes of 11 lakh plus.

Sushmita Dev was banking heavily on the minority votes as she could rally them around in 2014, besides garnering a large chunk of tea tribe, tribal and other groups forming 21 per cent votes. She could also make a dent into Hindu voters, making a block of 40 per cent. Dr Rajdeep Roy made the accusation that Sushmita Dev was making communal overdrive to woo the Muslims. Videos showing her visiting seminaries went viral. But this simple arithmetic of Sushmita Dev was outsmarted by Rajdeep’s chemistry.

And this has been quite systematically worked out by the BJP MLAs of six of the seven Assembly constituencies and the grassroot workers spread over 156 gaon panchayats under Silchar LS seat.

The fear of a khichdi sarkar at this critical juncture of the country if Narendra Modi does not return has gone down well in the psyche of people, both in the urban and rural areas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s welfare schemes like Ujjawla (free gas connection) to poor and backward families, electricity connection to each and every village, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, free ration to tea workers and heavily subsidised rations to those living in the fringe areas of tea estates, Ayushman Bharat and many more have benefited all, irrespective of caste, creed and class. The message has been conveyed well through campaign blitzkrieg that only a strong NDA led by Modi alone can deliver goods.

Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay and Raffle failed to impress the people of this valley when the Congress president came down here to flummoxed Modi at a flopped public rally. Even Priyanka Gandhi’s crowded road show here could not pull votes at the hustings. Both Silchar and Karimganj seats have to be regained. Prime Minister’s two successive mega public rallies, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and the Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s whirlwind and sustained campaign across the valley along with central and state leaders turned the table in favour of Dr Rajdeep Roy and Karimganj candidate Kripanath Mallah. Not only Barak Valley, the entire Northeast has gone tremendous change in respect of connectivity during the last five years.

In the final analysis, it is this connect with the masses that brought victory for Rajdeep Roy. On the other hand, the game of polarisation of Sushmita Dev failed to pay off. It has been well said winning election is more on chemistry than arithmetic.

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