Confident of winning Barpeta LS seat: Congress candidate Deep Bayan

Sukmanah: Congress Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency candidate Deep Bayan exuded confidence in winning the election and claimed that the presence of other nominees from opposition parties like CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress (TMC) will not be a hindrance in his victory.

Apart from Bayan, the other candidates in the fray for the Barpeta seat which will go to the polls on May 7 are ruling alliance Asom Gana Parishad's (AGP) Phani Bhusan Choudhury, CPI(M)'s Manoranjan Talukdar and TMC's Abul Kalam Azad.

The AGP is an ally of the BJP.

In an interview with PTI here amidst his campaign meeting, Bayan alleged that Talukdar and his supporters are spreading fake news in the constituency and helping divide the anti-NDA votes.

"They (Talukdar and his supporters) are spreading fake news every day... The public is also questioning whom Talukdar is helping. By dividing the votes, whom is he trying to help?" asked Bayan, the state Seva Dal chief.

He pointed out that Talukdar, the lone CPI(M) MLA from Sorbhog constituency, won the assembly elections in 2021 only because of an alliance with the Congress.

Talukdar received 96,134 votes in 2021 when CPI(M) contested as part of a Congress-led alliance. In the 2016 assembly polls, when there was no alliance between the opposition parties, he came third by securing 29,082 votes only.

"... Public is now questioning whether Manoranjan Talukdar is contesting this poll to help the BJP. CPI(M) is spreading a lot of misleading information," Bayan claimed.

In support of his argument, the Congress nominee said CPI(M) propagated after his name was announced that he would not file the nomination.

"But I submitted my nomination. Then they said I took the blessings of CM's mother by touching her feet. What was wrong here? This is Assamese culture to take blessings from elders. But that issue also got over," Bayan said.

Referring to some recent posts on social media, he said the latest false propaganda of CPI(M) is that Raijor Dal's Akhil Gogoi and Assam Jatiya Parishad's Lurinjyoti Gogoi have convinced him to lie low in the contest in support of Talukdar.

When contacted, CPI(M) Assam State Secretary Suprakash Talukdar said: "We don't have any link with this news. It is the responsibility of Congress to deny it, but I have not seen them officially denying it. Neither Deep Bayan nor the state Congress addressed a press meet so far and denied these allegations."

Justifying the Congress decision to put up a candidate, Bayan said: "Who is the biggest party in Barpeta Lok Sabha constituency? It is Congress, which has the sitting MP, five MLAs within the assembly segments, and it controls panchayats, zilla parishad besides having workers at booth level." He said neither Talukdar nor Choudhury will create any problem in his contest and claimed to win the election with a "huge margin".

"Public is the king of democracy. People from across the spectrum like senior citizens, youths, and mothers have blessed me and said the present condition of the country needs to be corrected. They asked me to move ahead with the youths and save the Constitution. All the 10 assembly constituencies of Barpeta are supporting me," Bayan said.

Asked about AGP's Choudhury, who is the longest-serving MLA of Assam for eight consecutive terms since 1985, the Congress leader opined history tells that when public support is there, even the biggies have fallen.

"The AGP candidate here is a long-time MLA from Bongaigaon, but the people from his constituency have not seen him raising anything for even a single time. People realise that Congress is a big force to remove BJP from power," he added.

Bayan also said that AGP leaders were instrumental in getting the Assam Accord signed, but the same party did nothing to stop the BJP while the Citizenship (Amendment) Act was implemented, thereby "practically invalidating the Assam Accord".

"BJP-AGP wants only power and the public understands this. That is why this time the public is determined to teach them a lesson. By implementing CAA, the BJP tried to dismantle our age-old brotherhood among all communities. 'AGP-BJP hatao, desh bachao' slogan is reverberating everywhere," he claimed.

Asked about delimitation, which transformed Barpeta into a Hindu seat from a Muslim majority one, Bayan said there will be no problem for Congress as people understand who has introduced the "nasty politics of Hindu-Muslim" in the society.

"AGP had vowed to deport all foreigners but did nothing. The public is not with them now. Frequent price rise is making life difficult for the common man. This government is taking huge loans to dole out beneficiary schemes. Who will repay it? Ultimately, again public money will be used," he added.

Bayan claimed that Bengali-speaking Hindus, which is considered to be supporting BJP, will not vote for the AGP as it had inflicted "inhuman tortures" on the community during Assam Agitation.

People will also vote against the ruling dispensation considering the imposition of new taxes regularly, the constant rise in prices of all goods and huge unemployment in the society, he added.

There are nearly 19.8 lakh voters in Barpeta, a religiously and linguistically sensitive place, and over 12 lakh of them are Hindu and around seven lakh are Muslim electors.