| Mahanta
hopes to ride home on Congress nominee’s family fight
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Barhampur (Nagaon), May 7:
People
driving up from Guwahati to Upper Assam are greeted with a series
of arches built along NH 37 which say: Welcome Prafulla Mahanta.
One of the arches describes him as a jana-neta (leader of
the masses), and another terms him as shanti doot (apostle
of peace).
 But
there are an equal number of arches of the Congress too, focussing
on Chitralata Phukan, widow of former MLA Ramesh Phukan. The Congress
has been trying to project her as one of the hundreds widowed by
insurgency. Despite the fact that her husband died of some illness.
‘‘Mahanta
cannot be defeated in Barhampur,’’ says state BJP executive
member, Raju Bora, who’s been vigorously campaigning for the
AGP chief.
So also is
Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, the Chief Minister’s wife, who is
a Rajya Sabha member apart from being the party vice-president.
‘‘For
Mahanta it will not be a difficult task winning from Barhampur.
People are proud that Mahanta has been their MLA for the past two
terms,’’ she says.
Bhupen Pathak,
a shopkeeper at Uriagaon, an AGP stronghold said, ‘‘We
do not know this woman called Chitralata. We have only heard that
she is the former MLA’s wife.”
Mahanta is
caught in a six-cornered contest at Barhampur. Incidentally, Chitralata’s
chances of getting more votes have also been diminished by the fact
that her doda-sahur (husband’s uncle) Uma Phukan too
is in the fray as a Congress rebel. Uma Phukan has already criticised
his bhatija-bowari (nephew’s wife) as well as the Congress
by alleging that Chitralata’s husband was corrupt when he represented
this seat in 1983.
Uma Phukan,
70, is a veteran freedom fighter whose mother Bhogeswari Phukanani
was one of several Assamese woman martyrs of the 1942 freedom struggle.
Mahanta too faces corruption charges from the people. Mamoni Das,
an unemployed girl of Bhotaigaon, is full of complaints against
him and the AGP.
‘‘Mahanta
is out and out corrupt. Only people who have party members in their
families have got favours. The well-connected are getting facility
after facility, and the poor and weaker sections have been ignored,’’
says Mamoni, who failed to get a teacher’s job ‘‘because
I did not bribe them’’.
Mahanta, who
was elected from Nagaon in 1985, shifted to Barhampur in 1991 to
secure 44.26 per cent of votes. His main opponent then was Ramesh
Phukan, who got only 19.54 per cent of votes. In 1985, the Congress
polled as low as 10.75 per cent votes, with Chitralata’s husband
coming a poor third.
In the 1996
polls, Mahanta’s vote share went up to 62.17 per cent, while
Uma Phukan, who was then the Congress nominee, polled 28.31 per
cent.
‘‘This
time the BJP’s votes are also going to be added to Mahanta,
while Ghanashyam Bora of the NCP is going to cut into the Congress
share,’’ says Kamal Bora, a retired ONGC officer of village
Narottamgaon.
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