Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase Two: In Assam’s Barak Valley, voters will cast their ballots for two Lok Sabha seats: Karimganj and Silchar Valley. Following delimitation, the Karimganj seat, with a Muslim-majority population, will now elect an MP for an unreserved seat. At the same time, Silchar, predominantly inhabited by Hindu Bengalis, will vote for a Scheduled Caste reserved seat in the Lok Sabha.
Stifled between the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Silchar is a tough contest in the making. Assam had published an NRC in 2019, which did not feature the names of several residents of Silchar.
While the CAA was passed in December 2019, its rules were notified last month just ahead of the announcement of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 schedule.
Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pledged that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would provide vital relief to the Hindu Bengalis residing in the valley. This assurance of CAA implementation played a pivotal role in securing the BJP’s triumph in the Barak Valley, garnering significant backing from the Bengali Hindu populace.
According to a report published by The Indian Express, the hopes around CAA seemed to have dimmed among the Bengali Hindus of the Barak Valley.
The Barak Valley region – which shares an over 125 km-long border with Bangladesh – saw the influx of a large Bengali Hindu population following the 1947 Post-Independence Partition, in a bid to escape persecution in what was then East Pakistan.
During his campaign for the Lok Sabha elections in the Brahmaputra Valley, Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed that only one person hailing from the Barak Valley had applied for citizenship under the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This statement comes amidst the valley’s staunch opposition to the CAA, citing its perceived contravention of the 1985 Assam Accord.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Silchar: Candidates
For the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the BJP has nominated Parimal Suklabaidya, the incumbent MLA representing the Dholai Assembly seat, to leverage local leadership in the valley.
The Congress faced a setback with the departure of its prominent Barak Valley figure, Sushmita Dev. Dev, who secured the Silchar Lok Sabha seat for Congress in 2014 but lost it to BJP’s Rajdeep Roy in 2019, has now aligned with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In response to this shift, Congress has introduced a new face, Suryakant Sarkar, for the Silchar seat.
Meanwhile, the TMC has strategically nominated Radheshyam Biswas, a former AIUDF MP from Karimganj, signalling its aspirations for the 2026 state Assembly elections.
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Published: 26 Apr 2024, 06:27 AM IST