Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Saturday took a leaf out of the Trinamul Congress’s campaign song Khela Hobe to mobilise support for Congress candidate Kamakhya Prasad Mallah from south Assam’s Dhalai constituency, which goes to polls in the second phase on April 1.

Addressing a massive election rally, where he attacked the ruling BJP for “growing” joblessness and price rise, Tejashwi asked the gathering in Bhojpuri: “Khela hoi ki na? (Is the game on or not?)”.The crowd roared back: “Hoi, hoi (Yes, yes).”

It is in this backdrop that the electoral battle for Assam began on Saturday, amid strict adherence to Covid-19 safety steps and security bandobast.

The first phase saw polling in 47 of the 126 Assembly seats, spread over 12 Upper Assam districts. At the time of filing this report, the turnout was 76.89 per cent of the total voter count of 8,109,815.

Ground reports suggest the 10-party Congress-led grand alliance has mounted a strong challenge to the ruling BJP alliance’s bid for a second straight term at Dispur but whether that translates into seats remains to be seen.

A senior BJP leader admitted that the Opposition alliance, of which both the RJD and the AIUDF are a part of, has created a buzz. “It is tight because of the late push by the Congress-led alliance but rest assured we will eventually form the government,” he told The Telegraph.

BJP and Congress insiders told this newspaper that the margin of victory in each seat will be very narrow irrespective of who wins.

The stakes are especially high for the BJP, which had won 35 of the 47 seats in Upper Assam in 2016. The Congress had won nine while its ally AIUDF bagged two. This time too, Upper Assam, where tea garden/Adivasi voters and indigenous communities play a decisive role, will hold the key to BJP’s prospects.

“The first phase remains most crucial because these constituencies have contributed phenomenally to the dominance that BJP enjoys in the state since 2014. The Congress’s ability to mark the return of tea tribes, Scheduled Tribe votes and withhold the religious polarisation by fragmenting the Hindu votes in the region shall be crucial to determine the election,” said Vikas Tripathi of Gauhati University’s political science department.

The fate of 264 candidates was sealed in the first phase on Saturday. Prominent among the candidates were chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and the presidents of the AGP (Atul Bora), Assam PCC (Ripun Bora), Raijor Dal (Akhil Gogoi) and Assam Jatiya Parishad (Lurinjyoti Gogoi). The final turnout figure is set to rise as a lot of voters were still in the queue.

With the Congress-led alliance playing up the BJP’s “unfulfilled promise” of Rs 351 minimum daily wage for tea garden workers and the “imposition’ of the “anti-Assam” Citizenship Amendment Act, the BJP alliance has had to campaign hard in the first phase to retain its voters evident from as many as 18 visits by the BJP’s top two — eight by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since January 23 and 10 by Union home minister Amit Shah since January 24. Shah made his 11th visit on Friday.

“They sold everything where there were jobs. Berozgari (unemployment) is an enemy... It can be solved only if you remove the beiman (dishonest). Khela hoi to berozgari khatam hoi (Only if the game is on you can end unemployment). Five lakh jobs have been guaranteed to you (by the Congress). You have to spread the word. You have to stay away from the BJP... They don’t talk about mudda (issues), only talk about murda (the dead). You people are intelligent. Sambidhan khatre main hai (The Constitution is in danger). You all have to save it,” Tejashwi said on Saturday.

He received thunderous applause from the crowd most of whom came from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand to work in the tea gardens. He attended four rallies on Saturday, three in Barak Valley,

Besides harping on its development poll plank in the first phase, the BJP top guns of late had also targeted the “communal” Congress-AIUDF alliance and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal but have not got enough traction to build a wave in its favour. Ajmal is a three-time Lok Sabha MP.

The second phase on April 1 will see polling in 39 seats, including 15 from Barak Valley, and the third phase on April 6 in 40 Assembly constituencies in lower Assam where the Congress-led alliance seems to be on a strong footing.

In the last polls, the AGP-BJP-BPF combine had won 86 of the 126 seats with a vote share of 41.9 per cent. The then ruling Congress was reduced to 26 seats and 31 per cent vote share and the AIUDF, fighting separately, to 13 seats with a 13 per cent vote share.

The BPF has this time joined the Congress-led alliance while the BJP has tied up with another Bodo outfit, the United People’s Party Liberal, which runs the Bodoland autonomous council.

The BPF and the AIUDF have become huge factors this time round, suggest ground reports.