Both the BJP-led alliance and the Congress have left no stone unturned in securing tribal votes, which may turn out to be a key factor in deciding the result of the ongoing Assam Assembly election. Of all the tribal communities in the state, the electoral behavior of the tea tribes comprising about six million has become most crucial.
The tea tribes comprise the people whose ancestors were brought during the British period, mostly from the Chhotanagpur plateau and other areas of the present day Jharkhand state, to work as labourers on the burgeoning tea plantations. They are now mostly scattered over 739 registered tea gardens in the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys and make up 17 percent of Assam’s population.
This time, their vote is going to decide the fate of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is contesting from the Titabor constituency in the tea garden belt of Jorhat district. Gogoi is pitted against Kamakhya Prasad Tasa, the incumbent BJP Lok Sabha MP from Jorhat.
The tea tribes’ votting pattern is likely to be influenced by their long-standing demand for being accorded the Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Right from the first general election of 1952 they had supported the Congress but sided with the BJP during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll, when the tea garden-dotted seats of Dibrugarh, Jorhat and Tezpur were won by the saffron party.