Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra played a “key role” in prevailing over her party to leave the Tinsukia Assembly seat in Upper Assam to the Rashtriya Janata Dal which will be making its electoral debut in the state.
The principal Opposition party in Assam had on Monday night announced that it will contest 43 of the 47 Assembly seats that go the polls in the first phase on March 27 while allies AIUDF, Anchalik Gana Morcha, CPI (ML) and RJD in one seat each.
The RJD has fielded Hira Devi Choudhary, a 52-year-old history graduate from Bihar’s Bhagalpur University, who was till Monday the Tinsukia DCC treasurer and a secretary of the Assam Mahila Congress.
She had even applied for a Congress ticket despite missing out twice in the past, making her candidature quite unique.
Assam state RJD president Sheikh Shonarul Shah Mustafa told The Telegraph on Tuesday, “Priyanka ji played a key role in us getting the Tinsukia seat. She wants to strengthen the bond with the RJD which is an ally of the Congress in Bihar... By leaving the Tinsukia seat to RJD, Priyanka ji reciprocated RJD and Tejashwi ji’s gesture of leaving 70 seats to the Congress in the Bihar polls last year. Discussion for four more seats are on,” Mustafa said.
The RJD-led mahagathbandhan came close to unseating the JD(U)-BJP government in Bihar, which has 243 Assembly seats.
There is another reason, according to Choudhary, a mother of two lawyers — one of whom practices in the Supreme Court and the other in Tinsukia court.
“I had applied for a Congress ticket. Since Priyanka ji is a votary of women empowerment and the mahagathbandhan with the RJD, she suggested my name to the RJD. The Congress leaders called to know my opinion. I said I will abide by what the Congress leadership decides. Subsequently my candidature was also accepted by the RJD because of track record,” Choudhary said.
Asserting that she was known more for her social work than as a politician since 1996, Choudhary said, “My candidature is bit unique. Applied for a Congress ticket, contesting on RJD ticket but with the full backing of both parties. I am an alliance candidate in true sense. The Congress and RJD members accompanied me when I went to file my nomination on Tuesday. I am grateful to the leadership of both the parties.”
She came to Assam in 1984.
The alliance between the Congress and the RJD is a first in Assam and has taken the number of allies in the grand alliance to eight parties.
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had said in Guwahati on February 27 that the party will be contesting the Assam polls and that Congress was its natural ally.
Yadav had also said he will be banking on the huge Hindi-speaking population from Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh, influential in “eleven” of the 126 Assembly seats in the state.
Tinsukia is one constituency where Hindi-speaking population play a decisive role. It is an important business hub of the state after Guwahati.
However, it will be a difficult ask because the RJD has no “visible base” in the state despite launching its Assam unit in 2017 and the “five per cent” Hindi-speaking population Yadav was “banking” on has been mostly backing the BJP since 2014 while a small section is with the Congress and regional forces.
The Congress candidate in 2016, R.P. Singh, has since joined the BJP and their candidate Sanjay Kishan is an incumbent minister and hail from the tea community.
“With Congress not putting up a candidate, the RJD can fancy its chances. But most importantly it is positive development for the grand alliance in Assam,” said a Congress insider.