Assam Assembly Election: Five Karimganj LACs in for tough & straight battle

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: The five Assembly seats of Karimganj district – Ratabari, Patharkandi, Badarpur, Kaimganj (North) and Karimganj (South) – are set to witness tough and straight fight between the BJP-led alliance and the Congress-AIUDF combine.

Other parties like the CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML), the SUCI and independents are almost inconsequential. The focus of interest is Karimganj (North), considered prestigious for the BJP-led brigade and the Congress-led alliance as well. This is mainly an urban population-based constituency where the voters have shown their preference for the Left, AGP and the Congress till the entry of the BJP and the AIUDF in the scene.

Congress candidate Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha has retained Karimganj (North) in 2011 and 2016, and it is this winning streak which prompted Assam Pradesh Congress president Ripun Bora to retort back to BJP State president Ranjeet Dass' statement of starting the victory march from here to score 100 plus. Ripun Bora said that their victory would start from Karimganj (North) and the target would be 100 plus.

This time Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha is again the candidate of the INC backed by the AIUDF. Mission Ranjan Das, who was trounced by Kamalakha Dey Purkayastha twice, has been replaced by Dr Manas Das by the BJP. The big question that hovers over is: can the BJP begin its 100 plus journey from here? Ratabari (SC) is held by BJP candidate Bijoy Malakar who defeated the nearest rival of the Congress in a bye-election. Patharkandi is also held by Krishendu Paul of the BJP. Karimganj South was won by Aziz Ahmed Khan of the AIUDF in 2016 trouncing his closest Congress contestant Siddeque Ahmed. Badarpur is yet another key Assembly seat from where Jamal Uddin Ahmed of the Congress won in a close encounter to runner-up Abdul Aziz of the AIUDF. On this seat, the two rivals have become friends to make it a roller-coaster drive.

The BJP has left two seats of South Karimganj and Badarpur for the AGP. The Congress, on the other hand, has allotted both the seats to the AIUDF. Looking against the background of political profile of the 5 Assembly seats under Karimganj Parliamentary constituency, it can be said that the BJP and the AGP will be faced with stiff challenge from the Congress and the AIUDF. The demographic structure is likely to come to the advantage of the Congress-led alliance. Leaving aside the communal overtone and divide, what makes the BJP-AGP alliance comfortable is that the MP seat of Kaimganj has Kamakhya Prasad Mala of the BJP. The equation, however, will change as the campaign by political parties reaches its crescendo. A great booster to the campaign of saffron brigade will be the mega public rally by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 18.

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