Rebel AGP member to take on Congress heavyweight

DIBRUGARH: Tea tribe welfare minister Atuwa Munda would take on old-time rival Anup Phukan, who had defeated him in 2006 in Tingkhong constituency of Dibrugarh district. Phukan, who left AGP in protest against its tie-up with BJP, is contesting as an Independent.
Munda is fighting for his fourth win from the seat. An English professor of Tingkhong College, Phukan had defeated Munda, the sitting MLA, in the 2006 election by 5,342 votes.In 2011, Munda bounced back, winning by a handsome margin of 15,524 votes. Munda's scorecard against Phukan currently reads 4-1, having won the Tingkhong seat on two other occasions — in 1996 and 2001.
Munda, who contested for the first time in 1996, managed to defeat Phukan by 1,957 votes. In 2001, a slender margin of 404 votes kept Munda ahead of Phukan.
In the 2104 Lok Sabha election, Phukan contested from the Dibrugarh parliamentary constituency. He got 45,710 votes, finishing third behind BJP's Rameshwar Teli (4,94,364 votes) and INC candidate Paban Singh Ghatowar (3,09,017 votes).
Congress has won the Tingkhong seat five times out of nine, since the first election in 1967. Five-time MP and veteran Congress leader Paban Singh Ghatowar once contested from the seat in 1985 and lost to an Independent candidate, Atul Chandra Koch, by 5,155 votes. In 1991, the party fielded Prithibi Majhi, who won by an impressive margin of 16,284 votes, against AGP's Jogesh Bikash Chetia.
Being fully aware of the fact that Phukans's presence has queered the political pitch in the tea-rich constituency, BJP is pulling out all the stops to counter the threat posed by him.
On Friday, Union minister and BJP chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal addressed a campaign rally at Gandhi Maidan in Tingkhong appealing to the AGP supporters to throw their weight behind the saffron candidate. "BJP and AGP must put up a united fight to uproot the corrupt Congress government. Our alliance is going to provide a stable government to the people of the state," Sonowal added.
The saffron party has fielded Bimal Bora, a relatively new face, for the seat that has never been a BJP stronghold. In 2006, BJP had finished a distant third behind Congress and AGP with party candidate Ranjan Bikash Gogoi garnering 3,072 votes. In 2011, BJP again secured the third position with its nominee Dipuranjan Markari bagging 13,626 votes.
The decision to give away Tingkhong seat to the saffron party as part of its pre-poll pact came as a huge shock to the party members. Revolting against the party leadership, AGP's rank and file decided to field Phukan as an Independent candidate.
The other contestants in the fray are CPI (ML) candidate Mira Tanti, Eliash Sichan of Jharkhand Disom Party and Dilip Bharali of Bharat Vikas Morcha.