Know your Constituency: Barpeta

Barpeta, April 21, 2019:

In minority-dominated Barpeta parliamentary constituency, the polarization of votes will hold the key to winning this seat which heads to the polls during the third phase of voting on 23 April.

There are three big players in this constituency: AGP, Congress, and AIUDF. Of the total 16,76,854 voters, 20% comprise non-minority voters who will play a key role in this Constituency.

Historically, Barpeta has been a Congress citadel as the party has held control of the seat for 63 years. Beli Ram Das of the Congress party was elected as the first Lok Sabha MP from the Constituency in 1951. The Congress has won all elections in Barpeta barring 1991 and 1996 when CPI(M) candidate Uddhab Barman was able to wrest control away from the grand old party.

In 2014, the seat was won by AIUDF's Sirajuddin Ajmal, who defeated the BJP's Chandramohan Patowary by a margin of 42,341 votes.

This time AGP has fielded Kumar Deepak Das, while Congress has fielded Abdul Khaleque and AIUDF has opted for Rafiqul Islam.

There are 10 assembly segments under Barpeta—Bongaigaon, Abhayapuri South, Patacharkuchi, Barpeta, Jania, Baghbar, Sorukhetri, Chenga, and Dharmapur.

This time, the minority votes will be split between the Congress and AIUDF, while the AGP will be targeting the non-minority voters.

But experts believe that the Congress will emerge victorious here as their dominance in Barpeta has been absolute apart from a few slip-ups. Moreover, Khaleque's campaign has been effective in addressing voter concerns.

Barpeta by the Numbers:

Male voters : 865300

Female voters : 811538

Third Gender voters : 16

Total voters : 1676854

Bookies' Choice: Abdul Khaleque (INC)