Target 543: India begins epic chase

Assam, Tripura first off the mark as Lok Sabha polls open; Cong fights to save bastion, BJP hopes to make inroads

NEW DELHI: More than seven-anda-half million voters will vote across 10,000 polling stations on Monday as the world’s largest democratic exercise kicks off from six constituencies in the Northeast.

The first of the nine-phase polls covers five of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam and one of the two seats in Tripura.

The Cong ress cur rently holds four while the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) has one of the five seats — Tezpur, Kaliabor, Jorhat, Dibrugarh and Lakhimpur — spread across Assam’s tea belt. The CPI(M) holds the Tripura West seat.

The Northeast, with its 25 seats, is crucial for both the Congress and the BJP. The former is desperate to improve upon its 2009 show of 13 seats to offset possible losses elsewhere in the country in a difficult election.

The BJP, on the other hand, is banking on the aggressive campaigning of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to edge out the Congress from its bastion.

The election is also important for the Left Front with the CPI(M) hoping that the popularity of the Manik Sarkar gov- ernment carries it to victory in Tripura, the last Left stronghold in the country. Both national parties have a token presence in the state.

Unlike in the past, no faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) or any other militant outfit has issued a call to boycott polls, though April 7 coincides with ULFA’S raising day, the day of its foundation.

The BJP has channelled its energy on the Congress-ruled Assam with Modi addressing an unprecedented five rallies in the state. The saffron party –which has never won any of the five seats in phase one – is looking to the “Modi wave” and his appeal as a tea-seller to woo voters in the region.

The Congress is banking on chief minister Tarun Gogoi and its hold on three major vote banks -- Muslim migrants, Adivasi tea plantation workers and various tribes – to improve upon its 2009 show of seven seats.

“The Modi laddoo has no takers in a state where people prefer local sweets,” said Gogoi, whose son Gaurav Gogoi is also fighting the elections from Kaliabor.

But dissidence – several MLAs have campaigned against party candidates – has dogged the party this time.