In the battle between Abhijit Paul and Tamal Banik, Cachar Congress is the loser 

Where is Cachar Congress today in Barak Valley or Assam’s political map? What is its relevance? On August 16, 2021, Sushmita Dev a former Silchar MP, daughter of former Union Minister Sontosh Mohan Dev, a former MLA, a former Municipality Board Chairman, moved on from the party to join the Trinamool Congress. Cachar Congress portrayed it as if it was no big deal for the party. Some of the Congress workers even portrayed this as a window of opportunity to highlight new leaders. One of the allegations against the Dev parivar is that they never allowed anyone outside the family to climb up the leadership ladder.

Sushmita Dev’s exit made Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, North Karimganj MLA the undisputed number one in Barak Valley Congress. He has won the hearts of Barak Valley on several occasions by highlighting the plight of the people living in this Valley at the Assembly. Arguably, he is the biggest ambassador of Bengalis in the Assembly. But Cachar Congress Bhawan is not Assembly. His effigies are burnt inside the Complex of the historical establishment graced by many Congress stalwarts in the past.

Purkayastha became the villain as he batted for a complete overhaul at Cachar Congress. The former district president and his close ones don’t even attend meetings anymore. Tarapur, that controlled Cachar Congress for so long is no longer calling the shots. The working president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, apparently recommended Tamal Kanti Banik, to the party’s state leadership for the position of District President. Banik was the Congress candidate fielded from Silchar in 2021. Taking a last moment call, albeit, after humongous drama, the party announced his name. At that time Cachar BJP had chaos to handle. The party decided to field Dipayan Chakraborty as the MLA snubbing two-time MLA and a former deputy speaker, Dilip Paul. Paul decided to contest as an independent candidate dividing the BJP votes. Yet, BJP won by a record margin. A senior editor from Barak Valley once said, “Even if a Banana Tree contests election on BJP’s ticket from Silchar, the tree will win.” So, was Tamal Kanti Banik made the scapegoat? Or was he presented with an opportunity that he failed to utilise? There are believers in both and that happens to be the problem.

Cachar Congress, these days, fails to conduct a Town Committee meeting with dignity. The party workers start attacking each other with bamboo sticks, and the media covers it with beeps as abuses hurled make it impossible to keep the audio on. Before the Assembly election, Tamal Kanti Banik was rumoured to have visited the RSS office. Speculative reports claimed he is set to join the BJP. There were pieces of evidence hinting towards it. So, a section of Congress workers who are Abhijit Paul loyalists, consider him as an agent of the BJP. Their unannounced demand is to have Abhijit Paul as the Cachar District President. A young leader from the valley, who they believe can rejuvenate the youth in the party and rebuild, which is the need of the hour. Most of the Abhijit Paul loyalists are Youth Congress members. However, the purists, the veterans, who if they were in BJP would be called ‘Markdarshak’ by now, are against it.

If there are pieces of evidence hinting at Tamal Kanti Banik’s interest in BJP, there are more than just pieces of evidence to establish that Abhijit Paul did Tamal Kanti Banik’s anti during the Assembly Elections. In fact, his close relatives publicly worked for BJP’s Dipayan Chakraborty.

The recent interview of Abhijeet Paul made it evident that he and Tamal Kanti Banik are at loggerheads. Some genuine young Congress workers are committed to this tussle between the two. Bhupen Bora has already given up on Cachar Congress and Jitender Singh, in all probability, doesn’t even care about Cachar Congress.

Another reason why Congress is in shambles in Cachar is uncertainty. There could be a grand alliance with TMC, INC together and in that case, it is obvious that Sushmita Dev would fielded by the alliance. Therefore, the fight to rejuvenate Congress is not a priority.

A district as important and as ignored as Cachar needs a strong opposition. Congress has failed to represent as a strong opposition anyone in Assam. But a district that saw the likes of Sontosh Mohan Dev, Dinesh Prasad Goala lead from the front, Congress becoming irrelevant in the political dynamics is not a win for anyone. Eight months have passed, and the party leadership is yet to announce the name of the new district president, no clue when the announcement would be made. But in this fight between Abhijit Paul and Tamal Kanti Banik, Congress is certainly the loser.