Mud flies as Mr Clean8217; hits trail

Gogoi, who fancies himself as Mr Clean8217; in the party, is at a loss for an answer. 8220;The Prime Minister had asked me to resign. But how does that matter in this election? It8217;s a five-year-old matter,8221; he says dismissively.

In its bid toportray him as 8220;corrupt8221;, the AGP has also begun a whisper campaign, accusing Gogoi of taking a hefty sum from lottery scamster Mani Kumar Subba 8212; contesting as Congress nominee in adjacent Tezpur 8212; for getting him the party ticket.

As if these problems were not enough, Gogoi has now stirred up more trouble for himself. A section of the tea plantation labourers, who constitute a major chunk of the voters in Kaliabor, are angry with him. The All Assam Tea Tribes Students8217; Association AATTSA had accused the Congress of exploiting the tea labourers as a vote-bank and Gogoi had retorted that the AATTSA did not represent all the tea labourers.

The president of the AATTSA, Simanchal Digal, hit back with: 8220;Who is Gogoi to say so? He does not come from the labourer community. And what has his party done for our people? Even the minimum wages rules have not been implemented.8221;

The AGP and the BJP have been quick to capitalise on this issue because in involves the votes of 2.9 lakh tea labourers, about 26per cent of the total votes here.

The BJP, in fact, has fielded a lawyer, Bhadreshwar Tanti, who comes from the community of tea labourers and was an AGP MP from here in 1985-89. 8220;I will get the votes of AGP supporters because I was in that party till a few years ago. A major section of the tea labourers will also vote for me. And then you have the Vajpayee magic working too,8221; he claims confidently.

Gogoi has other factors to worry about. The presence of Samsul Huda of the Nationalist Congress Party is one Huda, a former Congress MLA, will take away a good chunk of the constituency8217;s 35 per cent minority votes, which have traditionally gone to the Congress, while a new outfit, the Assam Labour Party ALP, formed by a group of influential tea labourer youths, can also inflict some damage on Gogoi8217;s prospects.

Biren Mirdha of the ALP, who is making his debut, is a well-known youth leader among the tea labourers, and as a tea garden manager says: 8220;The tea labourers are confused. They may not vote enbloc for the Congress this time.8221;

Shopkeeper Bijoy Gogoi at Jakhalabandha, a small town, has a word of caution: 8220;You never know. The Congress always plays a trick with the tea labourers on the day before the election. They are known to distribute liquor and clothes in the dark.8221; AATTSA chief Digal says his volunteers will resist any such move. 8220;We won8217;t allow this to happen. The labourers have become aware of such bribes besides the misdeeds of the Congress,8221; he says.

Nripen Saikia, mathematics teacher at a local college, says mathematically the Congress should lose this time. 8220;In 1985, it was the AGP which had won and in the next election it was the Congress. In 1996 the AGP won again, while Gogoi was the winner in 1998. If that pattern persists, the Congress should be on its way out,8221; he says. That may or may not happen but the dice is certainly loaded against Gogoi.