Sonapur, March 30: Rows and rows of shiny cars, parked in front of modern dhabas along National Highway 37 at Sonapur, paint a picture of glittering affluence. By nightfall, the ?mini-city? of Sonapur wakes up to hundreds of visitors from Guwahati, out to spend their evening with good food and good music.

But all this is a fa?ade: Dispur Assembly constituency?s reality is concealed in a rural belt of grim poverty.

Across the highway, towards the north, lies Amching-Jorabat, barely half-an-hour?s drive from Dispur, but a horizon away from the collective consciousness of the powers-that-be. Successive governments have failed to pull the people of this vast area out of the quagmire of disease and death. Added to this are the marauding herds of wild elephants.

?Every year, nearly 30 people succumb either to malaria or to jaundice. Medical facilities are practically non-existent. Who can say that we live so near to Dispur and are registered as voters in Dispur constituency?? asked Amit Kumar Basumatary, a young resident.

To top it all, herds of jumbos frequently come down to the area from the nearby hills, destroying the standing crop and demolishing houses.

The voters? anger is palpable, the response to Monday?s election campaign lukewarm. ?Congress MLA Robin Bordoloi, who won the election from this constituency the last time, completely forgot the people of Amching. Now he doesn?t dare visit the area. And that?s why he chose to contest the polls from a different constituency,? another resident of Amching said. Bordoloi is trying his luck from East Guwahati.

Hardly two km from Amching, Amchong tea garden is in dire straits. Estate workers are now more concerned about their livelihood than the elections.

?The garden is passing through a bad phase. We don?t have time to listen to the false promises of politicians. They are talking of turning Guwahati into a beautiful city. We request them to give us food and livelihood first,? said garden worker Nirmal Tanti.

A constituency dominated by tribal voters ? Bodos, Kacharis and Karbis ? among the three-lakh-strong electorate, Dispur is the real big fight in Elections 2006. While the ruling Congress has nominated old warhorse Akon Bora, former Union minister Bijoya Chakraborty is the BJP candidate. The Trinamool Gana Parishad?s Atul Bora is the third heavyweight as he has been backed by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

But for the main players, the focus is not on Amching or Amchong but one particular stretch of the highway at Sonapur.

Akon Bora is making all efforts to highlight Sonapur as the showpiece of the initiatives taken by the Tarun Gogoi government.

Most dhaba-owners ? small-time former activists of the Ulfa ? will attest to that.

But ask a resident of Sonapur village and he bursts out: ?Who goes to the dhabas? Not the people of our village. We have to take patients over several kilometres to reach a hospital. Where is the development?? said Ramani Kanta Kalita.

For thousands of other voters of Chandrapur, Soonsali and Noonmati areas, the main issue is land.

Many of them had faced eviction for allegedly encroaching upon government land and reserve forests. The people, however, claim that they have been living in these places for years and are entitled to ownership of land.