Avik Chakraborty
Guwahati, April 23: Silchar Lok Sabha is the only Lok Sabha seat in Assam where Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress(TMC) putting up direct fight against Narendra Modi’s BJP.
The Silchar parliamentary seat will witness a direct fight between BJP candidate and state cabinet minister Parimal Suklabaidya and TMC candidate Radheshyam Biswas.
Biswas, was an former AIUDF MP from Karimganj Lok Sabha. In 2014, he won the Karimganj seat and in 2019 he lost the seat. Recently, he switched to TMC.
Silchar Lok Sabha seat was reserved for scheduled cast after delimitation and due to that sitting MP of Silchar Dr Rajdeep Roy was denied ticket by the BJP. In 2019 Parliamentary election, Rajdeep Roy of the BJP won the Silchar seat with a massive margin of 81596 votes against Sushmita Dev of the INC.
“Silchar is the only seat in Assam where TMC has been putting a tough fight against BJP. Mamata Banerjee has campaigned in favour of Radheshyam Biswas in Silchar which saw a large crowd attending the rally. Union home minister Amit Shah held a roadshow in Silchar in support of Parimal Suklabaidya. The Silchar seat will be witnessing a direct fight between BJP and TMC,” said Biswakalyan Purakastya, a local journalist of Silchar.
Seven Legislative assembly constituencies are there under Silchar Lok Sabha seat. Recent delimitation had reserved the Silchar Lok Sabha seat for the scheduled cast and made a massive change in the map of the various assembly segments of the entire Barak Valley.
According to the latest figures, in Lakhipur total voters were 1,68,202, in Udharbond 1,84,372, in Katigorah 2,09,658, in Borkhola 1,99,152, in Silchar 2,13,386, in Sonai 1,85, 952 and in Dholai (SC), the total number of voters were 1,90,774.
Out of 13 lakh 51 thousand voters, the number of male voters were 6 lakh 76 thousand 331 whereas the remaining 6 lakh 75 thousand 141 were females. Another 24 voters were transgenders.
“Citizenship, unemployment, poor infrastructure and lack of proper connectivity with the rest of the country are the issues in Silchar. CAA and D’voter issues are also the major issues in the constituency. Most of the people in Silchar are Bengali speaking origin and this time they will vote for the party which will solve the decade old problems,” said Taranath Chakraborty, a resident of Silchar.
According to figures, minorities constitute more than 35 % of the total 13.51 lakh electorate in the constituency.
“Retaining Silchar Lok Sabha seat is very important for BJP. But TMC has putting up a tough fight to BJP through massive campaign. The TMC candidate Radheshyam Biswas held a big post in the Ashram of Thakur Anukulchandra in Silchar which is a added advantage for him. Thakur Anukulchandra have a large follower among the Bengali Hindus and Radheshyam Biswas has been campaigning among the followers of Thakur to encashed votes in support of him,” said a political analyst.
In 1991 senior BJP leader Kabindra Purkayastha won the Silchar Lok Sabha seat and he was also the Union minister of the state under Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In 1998 and 2009, Purkayastha won the seat but in 2014 he lost the seat against Sushmita Dev of INC.
Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev remained Silchar MP since 1980. For five time he was the MP from Silchar. Dev was the Union minister of State for Tourism and Communication during 1986-88 and Union minister of State for Home Affairs during 1988-1989.
Silchar will go to poll in the second phase on April 26.
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