Tea votes take centre stage in Assam poll battle between BJP & Congress

Guwahati, March 29: As Assam heads towards Assembly elections, the political spotlight has once again turned on the tea community – a numerically significant and electorally decisive group that both the ruling NDA and the Congress-led Opposition are aggressively courting. The BJP has fielded eight candidates from the community, while the Congress has also nominated as many.

Why the community matters?

With over 850 tea gardens, Assam’s tea community constitutes the State’s largest workforce and a formidable electoral bloc.

It plays a decisive role in at least 38 Assembly seats – primarily in eastern Assam – and holds the potential to influence outcomes in around ten more. With an estimated voting strength of over 35 lakh, the community often forms a critical mass capable of swinging electoral results in closely contested constituencies.

An evolving and unpredictable voting pattern

Traditionally aligned with the Congress, the tea community’s voting behaviour has undergone a notable shift over the past decade.

The BJP-led NDA has made significant inroads by leveraging welfare interventions, wage revisions, and targeted financial assistance besides strengthening base in the belt. This has rendered the community’s electoral preferences more competitive and less predictable. 

However, this shift is neither uniform nor permanent. The Congress has managed to retain pockets of influence, as seen in constituencies like Titabor in the last Assembly polls and Jorhat in the recent Lok Sabha elections.

Sops galore on election eve

In the run-up to the elections, the BJP government has intensified its outreach through a series of welfare measures aimed at the tea community.

These include a wage hike of Rs 30, a one-time grant of Rs 5,000 to nearly seven lakh workers, the promise of land pattas in tea garden areas, and the extension of OBC status to 37 sub-castes. BJP Tea Morcha chairman Dulen Nayak said these measures are part of an unprecedented transformation in the

tea belt.

Minister and BJP candidate from Doomdooma Rupesh Gowala said the tea workers are now receiving their rightful respect and value. “Though land pattas, education, healthcare and development, the BJP government has stood firmly with the tea garden families,” he insisted.

Congress remains cautiously optimistic

The Congress, however, has questioned both the intent and impact of these welfare measures. Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh president and former Congress MP Paban Singh Ghatowar described the schemes as fiscally unsustainable and lacking in long-term developmental outcomes.

He argued that while direct benefit transfers and cash assistance may provide temporary relief, they do not address structural issues such as income security and wage adequacy.

Ghatowar also pointed to unmet promises, including the long-pending demand for a daily wage of Rs 350, and warned that rising public debt could undermine the sustainability of such welfare-driven approaches.

Asserting that the sops may not necessarily translate into votes, Ghatowar pointed out that despite an enormous effort, the BJP lost the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Jorhat where an overwhelming majority of tea community voted for the Congress.

His son Pranjal Ghatowar, who is contesting in Congress ticket from Chabua-Lahowal seat, echoed him and said, “Every government has beneficiaries.The present State economy is chaotic. Inflation is rising. They are building hospitals but they don’t have doctors, quality of the education is going down, unemployment is on the rise. All the BJP rhetoric is hollow, and voters are realizing this,” Pranjal said.

The JMM factor

The entry of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) has added a new dimension to the electoral contest. Contesting in 16 seats, the party has been working to build a base among tea tribes, whose historical roots trace back to the Chhotanagpur region of present-day Jharkhand.

For the past year, the party has been actively engaged in strengthening its foothold in this region.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has also visited Assam twice, during which he prominently highlighted issues concerning tribal identity and social welfare. The JMM is in alliance with Congress in Jharkhand, but discussions for a tie-up in Assam failed.

Key contests

Several constituencies are set to witness direct contests between prominent leaders from the tea community. In Doomdooma, BJP’s Rupesh Gowala faces Congress’s Durga Bhumij, while in Titabor, BJP’s Dhiraj Gowala is pitted against Congress’s Pran Kurmi.

At Rangapara, INC’s Kartik Chandra Kurmi will battle it out against BJP’s Krishna Kamal Tanti, while at Udharbond, itt’s BJP’s Rajdeep Goala verses INC’s Ajit Singh.

The BJP has also fielded several high-profile candidates from the community, including Rameswar Teli (Duliajan), Sanjay Kishan (Makum), Pallab Lochan Das (Biswanath), Rupjyoti Kurmi (Mariani). The Congress, meanwhile, has placed its bets on candidates such as Roselina Tirkey (Khumtai) and Dr Amit Kumar Kalwar (Borkhola).