Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Phase 2: BJP treads cautiously in Assam's Silchar, keeps contentious CAA issue at bay

Stifled betwixt the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Silchar  is a pugnacious contention successful the making. Assam had published an NRC successful 2019, which did not diagnostic the names of respective residents of Silchar.

While the CAA was passed successful December 2019, its rules were notified past period conscionable up of the announcement of the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 schedule.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pledged that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would supply captious alleviation to the Hindu Bengalis residing successful the valley. This assurance of CAA implementation played a pivotal relation successful securing the BJP's triumph successful the Barak Valley, garnering important backing from the Bengali Hindu populace. 

According to a study published by The Indian Express, the hopes astir CAA seemed to person dimmed among the Bengali Hindus of the Barak Valley. 

The Barak Valley portion – which shares an implicit 125 km-long borderline with Bangladesh – saw the influx of a ample Bengali Hindu population pursuing the 1947 Post-Independence Partition, successful a bid to flight persecution successful what was past East Pakistan.

During his run for the Lok Sabha elections successful the Brahmaputra Valley, Chief Minister and BJP person Himanta Biswa Sarma revealed that lone 1 idiosyncratic hailing from the Barak Valley had applied for citizenship nether the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). This connection comes amidst the valley's staunch absorption to the CAA, citing its perceived contravention of the 1985 Assam Accord.

Lok Sabha Elections 2024 Silchar: Candidates

For the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the BJP has nominated Parimal Suklabaidya, the incumbent MLA representing the Dholai Assembly seat, to leverage section enactment successful the valley. 

The Congress faced a setback with the departure of its salient Barak Valley figure, Sushmita Dev. Dev, who secured the Silchar Lok Sabha spot for Congress successful 2014 but mislaid it to BJP's Rajdeep Roy successful 2019, has present aligned with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). In effect to this shift, Congress has introduced a caller face, Suryakant Sarkar, for the Silchar seat.

Meanwhile, the TMC has strategically nominated Radheshyam Biswas, a erstwhile AIUDF MP from Karimganj, signalling its aspirations for the 2026 authorities Assembly elections.

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Published: 26 Apr 2024, 06:27 AM IST