Barpeta is one of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. It lies in the lower Assam area. This seat was represented by former President late Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed twice in 1967 and 1971 in Lok Sabha. This seat is represented by Muslims for ten times. Out of ten times 9 times by the Congress party and once by All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in 2014. This seat is also known for high voting percent. In 2019 the seat witnessed 86.57 while in 2014 it was 84.40 per cent.
The seat is Muslim dominated and most of the candidates from this seat were Muslims. The seat was won by Uddhab Barmman of CPM due to division of votes among Muslim candidates in 1991 and 1996 LS elections. Since 1967 the Congress party always put Muslim candidates only on this seat. In 2014 the the then Congress party’s MP Ismail Hussain got defeated by the AIUDf’s Sirajuddin Ajmal.
The composition of the seat is changed post 2019 LS elections and the composition of the seat is completely changed. Now after 1967 it is the first time when the Congress party has not given ticket to any Muslim candidate from the seat.
The Congress party has exposed itself of Muslim appeasement by putting a non-Muslim candidate from the seat. It becomes extremely clear that the Congress party had put Muslim candidate from the seat only to win the seat rather than Muslim empowerment. It also becomes clear that Muslim candidates put by the Congress party is only for winning the seat rather than welfare of the Muslims.
In 2019 Abdul Khaleque of the Congress party won the seat by huge margin. It was expected that he will be given ticket this time too. But the Congress party denied him the ticket and allotted seat to Deep Bayan. In humiliation, Abdul Khaleque has resigned from the Congress party. This also shows how Congress party treats Muslims. For Congress and other such parties Muslims are only a vote bank.
The Congress party’s treating Muslims only as a votebank got exposed on different occasions too multiple times. In Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and in many other States where the Congress party had direct contest with the Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) as main challenger the party put symbolic minimum Muslim candidates.
The Congress party puts Muslim candidates only in such States and on seats where the Congress party had to fight electoral battle with regional or so-called secular parties like All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAM), Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP). The Congress party’s target is to annihilate such regional parties so that it will have to contest with the BJP only. Then the Congress party will use its policy of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh in such States and seats too.
