Brindaban Goswami

Tezpur, April 3: Tezpur is a constituency divided.

Home to icons like Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwalla, Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha and Nata Surya Phani Sharma, this cultural beehive is faced with its most difficult electoral choice ever. Pulling it in two directions are two seasoned campaigners.

Said Manoj Dutta of Parua matter-of-factly when asked about the prospects of the five candidates in the fray, ?The fight is between AGP president Brindaban Goswami and the Congress?s Bijit Saikia. This is what makes the choice difficult.?

Spoilt for choice? To a large extent, yes. What has upset political equations is that the AGP is projecting Goswami as the next chief minister. Though Goswami himself is busy campaigning elsewhere for his party?s candidates, this clamour has fuelled expectations here.

This is only natural. The North Bank has never had a chief minister. This is the first time that someone is being talked about as a chief ministerial candidate from these parts.

Explained Dutta, ?It is true that Goswami has not lived up to expectations in the two straight terms he got. He has his failings, but we also have to see the circumstances under which he was functioning. When the AGP was in power, he was sidelined. In the last term, he had to sit in the Opposition. Now he has the party?s backing and if he really becomes chief minister, it is only Tezpur which stands to benefit, not to speak of the prestige aspect.?

Had it not been for the ?future-CM? campaign, Saikia would have won hands down, his supporters claim. Saikia was chosen for the Congress ticket over the equally influential Robin Kumar Goswami (who is backed by Pranab Mukherjee).

The stream of visitors to his Ketakibari residence from early morning shows Saikia is in control of the situation.

Bijit Saikia

A former minister, the 62-year-old is staging a comeback to the Congress after serving an expulsion. He is confidence personified. ?I am sure of a Congress win. The party has taken this seat seriously and they have chosen me because of my mass base to take on an aspirant for the chief ministership,? he argued.

The real picture in this constituency with 1,43,700 voters would emerge only when Goswami finally entrenches himself for the acid test of his life. He is also contesting from adjoining Borcholla, where he is locked in a keen contest with one-time prot?g? Tanka Bahadur Rai of the Congress. He has been away campaigning for others towards the first phase.

?Tezpur constituency is divided into three sections ? the eastern part where the Muslim community plays a key role, the western part where the Assamese people hold sway and the town area, where the Bengali community is in a majority. This time, it is believed that the votes of the Bengali and Hindi-speaking communities will be the deciding factor,? a senior Congressman added.

Kartik Hazarika of the AGP (P), who is convinced that it is a three-way contest, reveals the AASU is silently campaigning for Goswami. The BJP has put up Anamika Barua. One just has to recall what the AASU did to singer Debojit Saha of the Barak Valley recently to gauge what could be passing through Hazarika?s mind.