The stand of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom on the Assam Assembly election have few takers inspite of the outfit's 'stronghold' in the upper Assam areas.
The ULFA, which is fighting for an independent Assam, recently stated the elections were nothing but a farce and had been of no use to the people of Assam and called upon the people to strive for their right to self-determination. But there seems to be few takers for the view.
The people in Jerai Goan, the native village of the fugitive ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua in Tinsukia district, are waiting to exercise their franchise. Families of certain ULFA top leaders from the area are also not interested in what the outfit has to say about elections as they are focused on electioneering.
A visit to Ahom Gaon, the ancestral home of ULFA advisor Bhimkanta Buragohain who was captured during the Royal Bhutan Army operation against the outfit in Bhutan in December 2003 and is now lodged in Guwahati jail, gave one the impression that the election was very much in the air in the household.
The ULFA advisor's younger brother Girin Buragohain, a teacher by profession, is busy campaigning for the Congress candidate of Sadiya Assembly constituency in Tinsukia district. "It is difficult to meet Girin these days as he is too busy with electioneering since morning till late in the night," said his elder sister.
Given the stand of the outfit, electioneering was expected to be a low-key affair in the constituencies located in the so- called 'ULFA heartland' in Tinsukia and Dibrugarh of upper Assam. But obviously people no longer subscribe to what the ULFA preaches on elections in these areas as they are very much responding to electioneering in Sadiya, Doom Dooma, Margherita, Moran, Chabua and Tingkhong Assembly segments.
The tea town of Doom Dooma has a mixed population. Located in the heart of the 'ULFA heartland', they are talking more about the Bharatiya Janata Party's star campaigners Hema Malini and Smriti Irani than the militants' stand on the election.
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