Assam Town That Saw Anti-Citizenship Law Violence Voting For Development, Jobs

Assam Assembly Election 2021: Chabua has been given away to BJP ally Asom Gama Parishad and Punakon Baruah is the party candidate. The Congress has a new candidate in the seat, musician-turned-politician Ajay Phukan.

Election campaign is on a high note in Chabua, a key constituency in upper Assam's Dibrugarh districts. It is among the 47 seats going to polls in the first phase on Saturday, March 27. Before the lockdown, the country saw massive anti-citizenship law protests. In many places it was violent. The protests had started in December 2019 in Assam and the first case of large-scale violence during the anti-citizenship law protests took place in Chabua. The town is very close to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's home village. NDTV visited Chabua and found that the cause of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, though an emotive issue, has weakened in people's mind space. The Congress has promised a rollback of the CAA through a state legislation in Assam, if voted to power. The implementation of the controversial law, which the BJP says it's committed to, is not part of the 10 promises it gave to the people of Assam in its election manifesto.