Tea leaves to reveal poll fortunes

Dibrugarh/Silchar: As has been the case in every election, tea garden voters are going to play a key role in determining the outcome of several seats in upper Assam and the Barak Valley.
In the tea gardens of upper Assam and the Barak Valley, voter turnout was high.
The tea garden voters are expected to have a major impact in at least 13-15 seats in the upper Assam region.There are 34 seats being contested in the seven upper Assam districts of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Golaghat, Dhemaji and Lakhimpur.
In Barak Valley, too, the community is a deciding factor in many constituencies, including Lakhipur, Udharband and Dholai in Cachar district, Algapur in Hailakandi district, and Patharkandi and Ratabari in Karimganj district.
Congress is counting on the community, its most trusted vote bank, to help it sail through this bitterly-fought election. BJP also hopes for considerable gains in the tea belt, reminiscent of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
All major parties have supported the demand of tea workers, mostly of Chhota Nagpur origin, for scheduled tribe status.
Among prominent names whose fate is going to be decided largely by the community's votes are Paban Singh Ghatowar (Moran), Prithibi Majhi (Lahowal), Raju Sahu (Chabua), Atuwa Munda (Tingkhong), Rupjyoti Kurmi (Mariani) and Gautam Dhanowar (Digboi) from Congress, and Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (Titabar), Sanjay Kishan (Tinsukia) and Terosh Gowala (Duliajan) from BJP.
Senior Congress leader and five-time MLA Prithibi Majhi, after casting his vote on Monday, said his party was going to win at least 20 of the 34 seats in upper Assam. "The Lok Sabha setback is now history. The tea garden voters are with us this time," Majhi said.
Soon after polling ended on Monday, a top Congress leader from the tea community claimed a decisive sweep for the party in upper Assam.
"According to our internal assessment, we should get 70-75% votes from the community. The voting percentage in the tea garden areas has touched a high of 90%," he said.
In the last Lok Sabha election in 2014, BJP succeeded in making a huge dent in Congress's vote bank, riding the Modi wave. Of the four Lok Sabha seats in upper Assam, BJP won three.
In a bid to win back voters following the Lok Sabha debacle, the Congress government made some shrewd moves in the run-up to the election. The party initiated a slew of measures for the benefit of the community, including patta (land rights), bagan ghar (housing) and garden bus service.
Five-time Congress MP and community leader Paban Singh Ghatowar recently said 80% tea voters are Congress loyalists. However, he admitted that Congress could garner only 50% votes in the last Lok Sabha polls which hurt the party badly.