Tea party gets cold feet on poll battle

NPP forced to rethink strategy

Guwahati, Feb 2 : The new political party of the tea tribes, the National People’s Party (NPP), has developed cold feet about putting up candidates in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections barely two days after its formation. The development could be music to the Congress’s ears as the tea community has traditionally been its vote bank and the new party could dent its base. Sources in the NPP said the party would not like to put up candidates unless it was very sure of its winning prospect. “We are in a dilemma whether to put up candidates in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections or to strengthen our organisational base before making an electoral de-but,” said a leader of the party. Sources said the decision of the influential All Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (AATTSA) not to immediately associate with the nascent party has forced the NPP to rethink its strategy for the forthcoming elections. “Without a strong organisational base, it will be very difficult to ensure victory for our candidates unless the entire community is united,” the party leader said. The AATTSA is a formidable force in the tea garden areas of Upper Assam and no political party could afford to ignore it to make inroads into the gardens without its backing. Unless the student’s body too backed the new party, there would be division in the tea vote, which would not be good for the community, he added. The AATTSA will convene a conclave of the intellectuals and other prominent personalities of the community in March to solicit their opinion on backing the new party. AATTSA general secretary Pallab Das said the students’ body wanted to first convince itself that the new party would not merely turn into a spoilsport for the Congress. “We should not form a party just for the sake of defeating the Congress. We have to ensure that it can really serve the community.” A section of the NPP leaders too now sees logic in the AATTSA argument. “We too do not want to repeat the Dibrugarh experience of the last Lok Sabha elections,” the party leader said. In the previous polls, the AATTSA and other influential tea organisations had backed BJP’s Kamakhya Prasad Tasa against the Congress’s Paban Singh Ghatowar resulting in defeat of both the candidates because of the split in tea vote. In case it does not put up candidates in the ensuing parliamentary elections, the nascent party would lend support to “good candidates from the community” irrespective of their party affiliation, the NPP leader said.