In ‘Assamese heartland’, BJP looks to retain its grip, regaining lost ground Congress aim

It is the “Assamese heartland” that has largely transformed into a BJP stronghold over the last decade. As five seats in the Upper Assam region vote in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Friday, the Opposition INDIA alliance will look to regain its lost ground there while the ruling party attempts to retain its grip on the region.

The BJP at present has MPs in four of these five seats — Tezpur (now Sonitpur), Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, and Jorhat — while the Kaliabor constituency that was once the last Congress bastion in this belt and was represented by Gaurav Gogoi has been redrawn, transformed and renamed “Kaziranga” after last year’s delimitation exercise. As a result, Gogoi is now trying his hand from Jorhat against sitting BJP MP Topon Gogoi in one of the most hotly contested constituencies in the first phase. The rest of the state will vote in the second and third phases on April 26 and May 7.

Union Minister Sarbanada Sonowal from the BJP is contesting against Congress ally Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Asom Jatiya Parishad and the AAP’s Manoj Dhanowar while sitting BJP MP Pradan Baruah from Lakhimpur is being challenged by the Congress’s Uday Shankar Hazarika. In Sonitpur, the BJP’s Ranjit Dutta, the Congress’s Premlal Ganju, and the AAP’s Rishiraj Kaudinya are in the race while in Kaziranga, the contest is largely between the BJP’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa and the Congress’s Roselina Tirkey.

In the last 10 years, the BJP has consolidated its hold over this belt, winning all seats except Kaliabor in the last two parliamentary elections. This was a big turn in the tide compared to the 2009 elections when four Congress MPs and an Asom Gana Parishad MP were elected from these seats. The AGP is an NDA ally.

The Opposition ha