Bjp, Cong Face-off In Former Cpi-ml Stronghold | Guwahati News - Times of India

Source: The Times of India
Author: Mukut Das

Guwahati: Once a stronghold of the CPI(ML), the Diphu (ST) Lok Sabha constituency, which was recreated by delimitation last year out of the erstwhile autonomous district seat, with the lowest number of electors, is going to have an electoral battle without the Left party for the second time in a row.

The seat, which has the lowest number of voters among the 14 seats in Assam, will have the fight mainly between the BJP and the Congress.The CPI(ML), which is an ally of the INDIA bloc, will extend its support to the Congress.

CPI(ML) state secretary Pankaj Das said the party still has a base in the constituency but it did not contest the Lok Sabha elections 2019 and it has not fielded any candidate this time too.

The party had initially sought two seats -- Diphu and Dibrugarh -- but decided to extend support to INDIA bloc instead of contesting after being denied the seats by the alliance. "The objective is to defeat the BJP and that is why we decided not to fight," he added.

Das added that there are plenty of issues in the constituency spread over three hills districts -- Dima Hasao, Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong -- including the land rights of the tribal people and lack of proper healthcare and education facilities.

Jayanta Rongpi of the CPI(ML) represented the seat for maximum terms. He won the seat as a candidate of the Autonomous State Demand Committee in 1991, 1996, 1998 and as a CPI(ML) candidate in 1999. However, he faced defeat in the 2004 and 2009 parliamentary elections at the hands of Congress. In 2014, the party fielded Pratima Engheepi in the seat and badly lost the elections.

Former Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) chief Joyram Engleng, fielded by the Congress, will fight the battle against BJP's Amarsing Tisso, who is a sitting executive member of the council.

Engleng, who was a BJP MLA from Howraghat in 2016, quit the saffron party last year and joined the Congress.

The seat had tribal militancy issues earlier but it has ended with the rebel groups of the region laying down arms and signing peace agreements with the govt in the last couple of years. Irrespective of ideologies, all the political parties unequivocally say that peace and harmony have been established in the last couple of years in the region by solving the militancy issue.

Both the candidates of the BJP and the Congress have promised to take bold steps for all-round development in the constituency.