| Guwahati
sets tone for AGP, trumpets the Congress tune
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
Guwahati,
May 13: The
anti-incumbency factor and a mismanaged last-minute alliance between
the AGP and the BJP have together worked in favour of the Congress
in Assam. And the wiping out of the new alliance has begun from
right here in Guwahati city.
Chief Minister
and AGP president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta has been defeated in the
most prestigious Dispur constituency by Capt Robin Bordoloi of the
Congress. Mahanta in fact came a poor third here, securing only
23,477 votes against Bordoloi’s 46057.
Three-time Dispur
MLA and a former senior AGP leader Atul Bora, who quit the party
to form the Trinamul Gana Parishad (TGP), has been also been defeated
in the process, securing 40647 votes.
In West Guwahati,
another AGP bastion since 1985, it was the ‘‘friendly’’
contest between the AGP and the BJP that made it easy for Congress
nominee Hemanta Talukdar to scrape through. While three-time MLA
Ramendra Narayan Kalita (AGP) secured 24395 votes and Manoj Phukan
(BJP) 31094, Talukdar of the Congress won the seat with 36472.
West Guwahati,
incidentally, has elected a Congress candidate for the first time
in 25 years. But the biggest surprise has been in Jalukbari, the
fourth seat in the capital city, where an invincible Bhrigu Kumar
Phukan, now with the NCP, was unseated by his favourite disciple
of the AASU era, Himanta Biswa Sharma. While Sharma secured 39639
votes, Phukan lagged behind with 25451, the lowest he has polled
since his winning spree, beginning in 1985. The AGP-BJP combine’s
nominee and state BJP vice-president Ramen Deka could manage just
6618.
Though AGP leaders
are loathe to admit it, it’s a fact that the anti-incumbency
factor played a major role in the AGP rout. Party spokesman and
former Guwahati MP Prabin Sharma said it was surprising that the
people of Guwahati dismissed the alliance even after the AGP government
had pumped in over Rs 500 crore for the development of the city
in the past five years.
‘‘I
don’t think it was a failure of the alliance,’’ he
claimed, though the Congress points out that the poor turnout at
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s rally in Guwahati on
May 5 was enough to confirm that the AGP-BJP magic would fail.
Said state Congress chief Tarun Gogoi, happy with the emerging pro-Congress
trend: ‘‘The indications were very clear from the very
moment the AGP began confabulations with the BJP. Mahanta had only
in February described the BJP as communal while the latter had in
turn called it corrupt. How could anybody expect such a hurried
marriage to be successful?’’
While Mahanta
put in his best efforts, the role of state BJP chief Rajen Gohain
since the alliance was mooted contributed towards the alliance’s
defeat. Gohain, who was initially opposed to the alliance, later
went out to campaign with Mahanta. But two days before polling,
he said on record that the AGP-BJP combine would secure only 39
seats, which now appears to be coming true.
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