Exclusive representation

Guwahati, July 4: Adivasi leaders are finalising plans to float a party representing the tea community, possibly before the Lok Sabha elections, showing cracks in the Congress’s most trusted vote bank.

The All Adivasi Students Association of Assam (AASAA), which is spearheading the initiative, is busy holding meetings with various organisations of the community, setting a July 20 deadline for itself to close the conclaves.

This certainly means bad news for the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The tea organisation, in fact, gave a 10-day ultimatum to the Congress-led government yesterday, demanding a public clarification on the progress made so far on the community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.

The tea leaders also demanded rehabilitation of 40,000 Adivasis who have been languishing in various refugee camps in the Bodo Territorial Council areas, a CBI probe into the Beltola incident and an explanation on the government’s position on revival of the sick Assam Tea Corporation Limited-run gardens.

Though the students’ organisation has kept its conclaves on the tea-exclusive party under wraps, sources in the association said nine rounds of meetings have already been held on the issue.

The association has also got in touch with several top Congress leaders from the community for their opinion on the move to create a political identity for the community.

“There is no point in floating a party which will be backed by only a section of the people from the community. Before floating a party we have to ensure that it can make the desired electoral impact and for that we need total support from our people,” a student leader said.

The student association said the community has been increasingly feeling the need for a political party of its own to look into its aspirations.

“The Congress has always made tall promises and exploited the lack of political awareness of our community to its advantage. So more and more people were feeling the need for a political party which will be more attentive to our cause,” a senior AASAA leader said. He said merely supporting a few Independent candidates did not serve the purpose as was evident in the last panchayat elections when it had backed a few candidates who failed to make a dent.

On the idea of supporting other parties instead of floating a new one, the AASAA leader said the other parties, too, were not sincere about serving the community. If everything works out as planned, the new party would be floated before the parliamentary elections.

The Assam United Democratic Front, too, was born just before the Assembly elections of 2006 on the ground that the Congress had not paid much attention to the minority community, which had supported the party for long. The AUDF ended up winning 10 seats in the elections, leaving the Congress looking for an ally to form the government.