Lok Sabha polls: Polarisation of Hindu-Muslim votes key in Nagaon

Nagaon: Development and polarisation of Hindu and Muslim votes are likely to play a crucial role in Nagaon constituency, polling for which will take place during the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections on April 18

With the ruling BJP deciding not to give ticket to sitting MP and Union minister Rajen Gohain, the Congress party has also given its ticket to an ‘outsider’, Pradyut Bordoloi, a former Assam minister and MLA of Margherita. Apart from other issues, including development, the BJP candidate and Nagaon MLA, Rupak Sharma, is also banking on the ‘origin’ issue (as he considers himself a ‘local’) to woo voters.

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While urban voters of the constituency have managed to digest Sharma’s poll plank terming the Congress candidate as an ‘outsider’, a large section of rural voters in the constituency are still with the Congress as Rockeybul Hussain, the high-profile Assam Congress leader and former minister and MLA of Samuguri, has a strong support-base in those areas.

However, refuting all announcements and allegations made by the BJP candidate, the Congress camp has said that if Pradyut Bodoloi is an outsider for Nagaon constituency, how will the BJP leadership term Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s candidature in Varanasi, as he is a native of Gujarat. “What will also happen to Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, who hails from Dibrugarh but contested the last state elections from Majuli?” asked Abhinash Gogoi, state secretary, NSUI, Assam.

The young leader also lambasted the BJP for its failure to carry out any development activity in the state.

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“It’s really unfortunate that Hindu, Muslim votes have been polarised in Nagaon constituency. It’s really unfortunate. But who is responsible for this? We, the common people, have never ever thought on these lines. Only the political parties have made the difference,” said Abdul Mannan, a voter from the area who has been running an auto-rickshaw in Nagaon for the past 25 years.