Our Special Correspondent
TURA:
Trinamool leader and former chief minister Mukul Sangma’s decision to contest from Tikrikilla constituency besides Songsak, appears to be aimed at consolidating the huge voter base of the minority region that extends from Tikrikilla all the way to Mahendraganj, covering as many as six assembly segments.
The Trinamool is optimistic a “Mukul wave” in the region would swing the crucial seats of Tikrikilla, Phulbari and Rajabala, extending even to adjoining Selsella.
In most of the earlier general elections, the majority of the voters from the minority-dominated plain belt have usually gone en bloc for a single party, particularly the Congress, except under rare circumstances like in 2018 where a sympathy wave following the death of Manirul Islam Sarkar propelled his younger brother SG Esmatur Mominin to victory for the National People’s Party (NPP).
It is also a shrewd political move directed at cutting to size the powerful stronghold of former assembly Speaker Abu Taher Mondol, whose move to the NPP effectively led to the ouster of the sitting Phulbari MLA SG Esmatur Mominin who was denied a ticket by the Conrad K Sangma-led party.
Mominin has now joined the Trinamool Congress and been allotted the party ticket, while Mondol will be the NPP candidate.
AT Mondol has been, by and large, one of the most prominent faces of the minority community across the Phulbari-Rajabala region.
He, besides late legislator Manirul Islam Sarkar, was the first and among the only two from the minority community to ever make it to any senior cabinet berth in the state. While Sarkar went on to become transport minister, Mondol would scale greater heights to become the first minority leader to be elected to the post of Speaker of the state legislature.
He was propelled to the speaker’s post by none other than Mukul Sangma during his chief ministership from 2013 to 2018.
“His (Mondol) writ ran to a considerable stretch in the plain belt region and his entry into the NPP had the strong possibility of the majority vote share swinging to that party. Apart from Mondol, there is no other political leader from across parties other than Mukul Sangma who can change the equation in this most populated plain belt region,” according to a political observer from the Phulbari region who, however, did not wish to be named.
A swing in favour of the former chief minister in Tikrikilla can send powerful ripples across Phulbari, Rajabala, Selsella, Ampati and Mahendraganj, something that the Trinamool is eying at the moment.
It would also be a double whammy should he win, as it will also take out Jimmy D Sangma, who stands accused of betraying the Trinamool and Mukul Sangma by defecting to the NPP camp.
The Trinamool will be eying a major chunk of the 34,000 voters that make up Tikrikilla, where the Garos are the largest with 15000 and the minority Muslims come second with 8000 voters.