Guwahati, Dec. 25: After the Adivasi-dominated tea belt, the no-entry board is out for the Congress in areas inhabited predominantly by the Koch Rajbongshis.

The Atul Roy faction of the All Koch Rajbongshi Students’ Union said the ruling party would not be allowed to campaign for the panchayat elections in areas inhabited by the community. The “ban” is meant to “teach a befitting lesson” to the Congress for ignoring the community’s aspiration to Scheduled Tribe status.

Resistance by the All Assam Tea Tribes Students’ Association to the Congress’s campaign has already led to skirmishes.

Three persons were injured in a chain of events that began on Sunday evening with members of an Adivasi organisation assaulting a Congress member near Sonari town of Sivasagar district. He was attacked for arguing that the ban on election rallies in the tea belt should be applicable to all parties.

Lending its support to the 36-hour bandh declared by the Janagostiya Aikya Mancha from December 30 to disrupt polling — the first phase is on December 31 — the Koch Rajbongshi union today appealed to the community to abstain from voting.

The government’s attempt to quell the movement for a separate state of Kamtapur by convincing the Biswajit Roy faction of the organisation to withdraw its agitation ostensibly had little effect.

The Atul Roy group demanded that Delhi immediately convene a meeting with the Assam and West Bengal governments and the organisations spearheading the movement for Kamtapur. The agitation schedule was chalked out at a meeting of the Greater Kamtapur United Forum in Dhubri last night.

The agitation will begin with Koch Rajbongshis observing January 1 as a “black day”, Roy said. A cycle rally through the Koch Rajbongshi-inhabited areas of Assam and North Bengal is slated for January 15. Activists will block train services on February 4 and stage a demonstration in New Delhi on March 3.

The first phase of the agitation will culminate in a 72-hour Kamtapur bandh from March 31.

Without alluding to any organisation or agitation, the Manab Adhikar Sangram Samity said the “bandh culture” in Assam was a violation of human rights. “A bandh is one of the democratic means of agitation, but such modes of protest inconvenience the public more than the government,” the organisation said.