It's a bitter 'Modi vs Rahul' campaign in Assam as key issues take a back seat

If this contest to dominate the 126-member Assam Assembly has been the toughest in 30 years, the run-up has also been the most bitter. The stakes are high for BJP mascot and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah on one side, and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, and Chief Minister and Assam Congress veteran Tarun Gogoi, on the other. “Tarun Gogoi will turn 90 soon…Some people came to me and said we have a problem with the alphabet ‘I’, and so from now on, they told me they would say Tarun Gogo..Go Go..,” mocked Prime Minister Modi in course of his campaign tour Saturday. In reply, Gogoi, who will turn 81 soon, said, “Modi is a good actor, he should get an Oscar.” The Chief Minister appeared emotional and asked whether Modi, by ‘deliberately’ putting his age at close to 90, was actually praying for his demise. “I was made Chief Minister by the people of Assam, not by Modi or Shah,” Gogoi said. The Congress, like the BJP, has been combative. The party put up huge hoardings with a photograph depicting BJP’s chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal bowing to apparently touch the feet of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. The Congress’ text alongside the picture says, “How can a leader who can surrender Assam’s self-respect on Delhi’s streets protect the rights of the people of the state?” The BJP has moved the Election Commission saying such a campaign was against the model election code of conduct. On its part, the BJP has been accusing the Gogoi-led Congress government of being corrupt and of hoping to face the polls with the backing of the ‘Bangladeshi vote bank.’ BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sharma, who had defected to the saffron party six months ago with nine other Congress MLAs, has been going around describing this election as the ‘last battle of Saraighat.’ Fought in 1671, the much weaker local Ahom army defeated the Mughals on the banks of the Brahmaputra near Guwahati. The Ahom victory in that battle halted Mughal expansionism into Assam. Sarma’s explanation is that if the BJP does not win this time, Assam will come to be ruled by people who may not be of Indian origin, implying that it could be governed by the Congress-All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) combine who may win with votes of alleged ‘Bangladeshis.’ After the drubbing in Delhi and Bihar, it has become extremely important for the BJP to snatch a victory in a key state. And, among the five states going for Assembly polls, including West Bengal, the BJP stands a fair chance to grab power in Assam, riding on the perceived anti-incumbency against the Congress that had managed a hat-trick in 2011, and now trying for its fourth successive win. For Rahul Gandhi, the elections in Assam, considered a party bastion, is important to retain the Congress’ dominance in regions that have been its strongholds. [caption id=“attachment_2705186” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi in a file photo. AFP[/caption] Despite raging insurgencies, fuelled by sub-national aspirations, a national party like the Congress has managed to dominate the politics in the Northeast. Even today, the Congress is in power in four of the eight northeastern states. The BJP has managed to taste power in the region, albeit indirectly, when the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh recently transformed itself into a regional party government led by the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), backed by the state’s 11 BJP MLAs. To put it simply, a majority of Congress MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh toppled the Congress government of chief minister Nabam Tuki by joining the existing PPA and is now in power backed by the BJP. In this backdrop, Chief Minister Gogoi’s startling claim Tuesday assumes significance. He accused the BJP of ‘spending crores’ before the Bihar elections to topple the Congress government in Assam ‘with the help of Himanta Biswa Sharma.’ Gogoi said Sharma, once his close associate, tried to influence 30 Congress MLAs but failed. With less than 100 hours left for the first phase of voting, truth is at a premium in Assam, at least in so far as the politicians are concerned. A local court has, for instance, restrained Gogoi and a media house from repeating charges against BJP star campaigner Himanta Biswa Sharma that he was an ‘accused’ in a big chit fund scam. Sharma’s lawyers had produced the CBI summon notice that described Sharma as a ‘witness’, not an accused, convincing the court that issued the order to restrain. In this blistering war of words, hardly anyone is talking about Assam’s key issues—floods and erosion, lack of electricity, the huge unemployment problem, measures to boost agriculture and market linkage for the farmers’ produce etc. Some of these promises are, of course, confined to the poll manifestos released rather late in the day by the two main players, the Congress and the BJP. Wasbir Hussain is a Guwahati-based political commentator and television talk show host.