NPP-“Trojan Horse” of BJP in Assam

The Nationalist Peoples Party (NPP) is the new "Trojan Horse" of the BJP in Assam trying to wrest as much as anti-Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) vote in their favour to undercut Congress.

The NPP leader Conrad Sangma in full consultation with Assam Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma has put up so far five candidates and almost all of them are to undercut Congress votes.

The NPP has so far announced candidates for five candidates:

• Dibrugarh- Bhaben Barua
• Jorhat- Kamala Rajkonwar
• Koliabor – Abdul Aziz
• Silchar – Yasmin Mazumdar
• Tezpur – Ram Bahadur Sonar

Bhaben Barua is a prominent Upper Assam leader from the regional camp. By putting up him in Dibrugarh, the BJP want to ensure that anti CAB votes should go to Bhaben Barua, not to Congress.

A similar effort is also done at Jorhat constituency where the fight is basically on caste line with Ahom community being dominant. Both the main rival Sushanta Burgohain (INC) and Tapan Gogoi(BJP) are of Ahom origin and Mr Kamala Rajkonwar is also from royal Ahom family.

But NPP was used by the BJP in Sonitpur through Ram Bahadur Sonar. As BJP denied R P Sharma the party ticket, the BJP wanted to ensure that angry Gorkha community do not migrate to Congress. That is why a Nepali candidate has been popped up. If Gorkha votes are somehow checked from going to Congress, Bhanu and Congress shall be in trouble.

Moreover at Silchar also, the basic idea of fielding Yasmin Mazumdar is to eat away some amount of Muslim votes as these votes are bound to have gone to the Congress.

The biggest game is in Koliabor where NPP fielded fireband Muslim leader Abdul Aziz. This two time MLA was a former AAMSU man and still capable of pocketing few thousand of votes. If Moni Madhab Mahanata versus Gaurav Gogoi fights eventually becomes close, every vote will count and Aziz's role of undercutting Gaurav will be known on the afternoon of May 23 only.

In none of the five seats, the NPP is a serious player but the brief is to undercut the Congress as much as possible. The NPP state leadership after joining the bandwagon has realized the ploy but now unable to steer the party into the right way as it is controlled from Shillong by Conrad Sangma who in turn is taking command from the NEDA boss Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma.