| Poll
planks sink as parties trade charges
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Guwahati,
May 8:
With elections just two days away, real issues have taken a backseat
to killings by the ULFA and mud-slinging between the two main rivals
in Assam.
Militants have shot dead over 50 people since polls were announced,
with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), whom the ULFA has dubbed the
BJP’s ‘‘local collaborator’’, being the
worst hit. The AGP and BJP have together lost 20 supporters, with
the Congress not lagging behind with six of its cadre gunned down
during the last few days.
To top this, the AGP-BJP combine and the Congress are busy trading
charges, each accusing the other of having links with the ULFA.
‘‘There are clear indications that the Congress is hand-in-glove
with the ULFA in targeting the AGP and BJP,’’ Prime Minister
A.B. Vajpayee said here on Sunday.
He was merely reiterating allegations made earlier by AGP president
and Chief Minister P.K. Mahanta and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani.
Vajpayee also
added a new dimension by saying that while the Congress’ chances
of winning the elections was diminishing with each passing day,
an ‘‘internal’’ inquiry is on into the Congress-ULFA
nexus.
The Congress
is not sitting idle either. It has pressed a battery of leaders
from outside the state to continue its rhetoric against the AGP
and BJP which have joined hands to ‘‘prevent’’
the Congress from capturing power. Senior leaders such as Kamal
Nath and Suresh Pachauri have been camping in a posh hotel in Guwahati
to hold regular press briefings.
The AGP-BJP combine’s leaders such as Murli Manohar Joshi,
Pramod Mahajan, Ram Naik, Sunil Shastri and others have been to
different parts of the state to whip up the campaign in their favour.
Both sides claim they have evidence about the other side’s
nexus with the ULFA. The militant group has already described the
BJP as a ‘‘communal and expansionist’’ force
with the AGP working as its ‘‘local collaborators’’.
The militant group has also said it does not have much love for
the Congress either.
The lower Assam district of Nalbari remains the worst affected in
the on-going violence, with the AGP losing more than a dozen workers
in the five constituencies of the district.
The killings have been particularly targetting supporters of AGP
general secretary Chandra Mohan Patowari who as agriculture minister
is credited with starting a green revolution in the state.
Incidentally, the AGP-BJP’s most important poll plank is Patowari’s
success in making the state self-sufficient in rice and thereby
increasing the purchasing power of agriculturists.
But all this has been overshadowed by the killings. In fact, Assam’s
agricultural production registered a 17.7 per cent jump in 1999-2000.
In the twin industrial districts of Dibrugarh and Tinsukia on the
other hand the BJP has been the main target. The BJP has succeeded
in widening its support base in the districts that were hitherto
the Congress’ stronghold.
The AGP-BJP combine,
which has also roped in the influential All Bodo Students’
Union (ABSU) and the Autonomous State Demand Committee (U), has,
however, failed to project facts like the rise in the state’s
per capita income and the thriving private sector in its favour.
An independent survey conducted by the Federation of Industries
& Commerce of North Eastern Region (FINER) last month revealed
a boom in the service sector and construction.
In Guwahati city alone, over Rs 2000 crore has been invested in
both private and government sector in construction activities, the
report said.
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