Born at the Sinamara Estate in Jorhat, the tea capital of Assam, I had the privilege of understanding the garden workers’ unwavering allegiance to the Indian National Congress over the decades and the reason the party remained in power for so long, the late Tarun Gogoi ( 2001-2016), including a 15-year long reign. Sinamara, the state’s first tea garden owned by an Indian, which was also the location of the famous film Chameli Memsaab, offered me the opportunity to grow up with three prominent Congress leaders from the state, who were my neighbours. One of them is Roopjyoti Kurmi. Yes, the same leader who recently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party became national news. No one in the Bagh could have imagined that the son of Rupam Kurmi, himself a minister in Gogoi’s government, might leave the party, of which he himself was a four-time assembly representative, to join the BJP. However, for garden workers who switched allegiance before the 2014 general elections, it was inevitable, sooner or later.
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The March 2021 assembly elections were a litmus test for the Congress, which formed a grand alliance with the Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Left to take on the BJP and its allies. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Bhagel camped in Assam for months to regain lost land and people’s trust in the state’s tea gardens. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi made several visits to the election state and decided that they were seen in the tea gardens stating the party’s five guarantees. However, the results were contrary to the grand expectations of the Grand Alliance and the Congress was pushed from a formidable force to a struggling unit.
“I do not believe that the Congress has been wiped out. If you measure the party working at the grassroots level in any part of Assam, from Dhubri to Sodia, you come across the party’s strong, loyal and courageous worker base. This proves that we are capable. When there is dawn for the Congress party, it will also be dawn for the state. It is certainly a dark phase for the Assam Congress, but the party has experienced more difficult times during the ULFA days. This was when the party could not hold meetings in anyone’s house for fear of being shot or killed. Those were the darkest times and it’s also disappointing, but I am sure we will get over it.”
“2021 is a year of learning for the Assam Pradesh Congress. We lost the election and some of our MLAs. However, I see it in a different way. Because of this, I got more space and many young faces like me got the opportunities they deserved. I chose Congress and I too belong to a Congress family and our goal is set…to bring Congress back to power. Temptations are always there but I firmly believe that resistance helps you grow.”
Coming back to its stride with Sinamara Tea Estate and the Congress, the party realized the futility of the Grand Alliance after its assembly election defeat and decided to distance itself from the AIUDF, a factor that legislators like Rupjyoti Kurmi were hinting at. And doing a lot more. before tie-up. The Congress, which had bagged 29 seats and nearly washed out the tea gardens, including Sinamara, was set for more setbacks as its strongest face in the Barak Valley, Sushmita Dev, joins the Trinamool Congress for a better political future. Went and joined. Soon, Roopjyoti Kurmi from Mariani and Sushant Borgohain from Thaura follow Sushmita, but decide to join hands with “Dada” Himanta Biswa Sarma. This led to by-elections in five constituencies in the state where the “once cut, twice shy” Congress decided to follow the principle of Ekla Chalo Re.
This time too, luck did not favor the Congress in trouble and the party could not open its score, losing its tea strongholds from the ages like Mariani and Thavra. One of the three Congress leaders from Sinnamara was now a BJP member of the Legislative Assembly. Does this indicate the elimination of the Congress from the political canvas of Assam?
“Don’t forget that when we had a 15-year government, we won every election. Winning an election does not ensure that people will always support you. If the opposition is weak, then why is the Chief Minister of Assam adamant on expelling the MLAs from the opposition? There is a sure way to weaken the opposition. Let us give one year time to the newly elected government. We have our arsenal just waiting for the right time. If you consider my age then BJP is 15 years younger than me and Congress was there long before my grandfather was born. The Congress doesn’t need to learn from the BJP,” argued Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhupen Bora (appointed after former president Ripun Bora was relieved of his duties due to electoral defeat).
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The future of Congress is not bright even in Meghalaya, more than five hundred kilometers away from Sinnamara, the abode of clouds. Days after 12 of its 17 MLAs, including former chief minister Mukul Sangma, joined the TMC led by Vincent H Palla, the state unit fell apart, with Meghalaya Congress working president James S Lyngdoh resigning from the primary membership of the party without assigning any reason. given.
In his resignation letter sent to party president Sonia Gandhi, James said, “I am tendering my resignation as working president of Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee, AICC member and primary member of the Indian National Congress.”
Following the success of the bypolls in two constituencies in the hill state, the National People’s Party (NPP) said the Congress’s defeat was a sign that there was a problem and the party’s future was bleak.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, in an interaction with the media, said that the Congress failed to get a single seat in the Northeast, which in a way is a clear indication of the party’s problems and its challenging future. Does this indicate that the stars in the sky in the Northeast correspond to a sign that the Congress days are over? Is this an opportune time for the Trinamool Congress to fill the space?
“Every evening has a new dawn; This is nature. It can’t be evening for Congress. Every day will be a new dawn for the party. I do not agree that the Congress has been wiped out. No power in the world can wipe out Congress. Congress is not just a political party, it is the DNA of the country. In the last election, there was a difference of 0.1% of the vote share in Assam. Trinamool is the B-team of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The opposition should unite and play the role of opposition. TMC is weakening the opposition. The door of Congress is always open for anyone who does not believe in the ideology of Congress and wishes to sell for the greed of power and money.
“We have definite plans for Tripura as we are in alliance with tribal forces and if you ask me about Meghalaya, it is definitely a setback for the Congress,” he said. But I believe it is the party first, then the person.”
If change is the only constant, then the Congress in Assam has taken the first step towards change after two successive defeats. The Assam Pradesh Congress has entrusted its MLAs with the responsibility of launching membership drives in each constituency apart from their assembly seats. The party plans to have 33 lakh members in its first phase, and MPs will have to take responsibility in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies. To achieve this, APCC is organizing a three-day training program for its grassroot level leaders and workers in mid-December. The state unit also plans to contest elections in all 84 municipal wards of Guwahati in early 2022.
He said, ‘I agree that we have lost the elections but you have to accept that we have won the elections. During this we have won the election alone and with our allies. BJP stole the elections in Manipur,” said senior Congress leader and former Union minister P Chidambaram. There was a time when none of the northeastern states except the Congress had a government. The problem in the northeast is that there is no government. There is lasting ideological commitments. Regional parties change their ideology very often, which is unfortunate. If Northeast is to progress rapidly, political parties must stick to a certain ideology. I am quite sure that if Congress is the center Many people here will come back to Congress. I don’t want to be named but the people who changed their ideology overnight are now chief ministers.”
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