It is the tea tribe in the eastern Assam tea belt that has supported Congress to the hilt once again even as the party is all set to emerge as the single largest party in the Assam election and is gearing up to form the next government in the state with support from its ally, a faction of Bodoland People's Progressive Front.
The ruling Congress surged far ahead of its rival Asom Gana Parishad cornering 33 seats even as it awaited results from its traditional bastions in Upper Assam.
This indicates that the tea tribe voters had once again reposed their faith in Congress by backing the party candidates to the hilt in the area barring a few constituencies, including Dibrugarh and Tingkhong.
With Congress managing to retain support of the tea tribe, the division of anti-Congress votes among other communities between its rival AGP and the BJP went to the advantage of the Congress. This has happened despite BJP's all out effort to make inroads into the tea bastion of the Congress.
The Congress pre-election strategy to win back the support of the influential All Assam Tea Tribes Association paid rich dividend for the party. The Congress won over ATTSA, which was getting belligerent accusing Congress of 'exploiting' tea garden workers only for votes, by giving party nomination to a few ATTSA leaders.
The AGP and the BJP's failure to strike any sort of understanding before polls cost both the parties dear in Upper Assam areas where both the parties banked on votes of indigenous communities.
The 'neutral' stand maintained by the banned United Liberation Front of Asom in its strongholds in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts also went in favour of Congress as tea tribes voters cast their votes sans any fear this time.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who is all set to re-write records by leading Congress to retain power for the second consecutive time for the first time since 1972, stated that the people of Assam had reposed faith in the Congress for its capability to put the state back on development path and improve its financial condition to a greater extent since the year 2001.
Gogoi iterated that he was not itching to become the chief minister once again when Congress will form the next government in the state.
"I am not in the race. It will be decided by the elected party legislators and the high command. I will abide by their wishes. For me the most important thing is that Congress is on course to retain power because of the performance of the party government led by me," he said.
Meanwhile, two Congress aspirants for chief minister post, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhubaneswar Kalita and senior leader Devananda Konwar were defeated in the polls from Rangiya and Thowra constituencies.
Gogoi also said that although the Congress was not likely to win the magic figure of 64 to attain a simple majority, it was going to form the government with support from its ally, BPPF faction, led by Hagra Mohilary. The BPPF faction is going to win at least 10 seats as per the trend available so far.
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