Dibrugarh: The Assam Tea Tribe Students’ Association (ATTSA), Dibrugarh district unit has urged the BJP leadership not to field incumbent Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli as BJP candidate from the Dibrugarh constituency.
Addressing a press conference here, Bimal Bagh, president, of ATTSA, Dibrugarh said, “We don’t want Rameswar Teli to contest from Dibrugarh seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections because he failed to address the issues of the tea tribe in his last 10 years term. He has been a complete failure as a Dibrugarh MP. We don’t want him again from Dibrugarh. We have urged the BJP leadership to give a new face this time will raise our burning issues.”
“If the BJP leadership again fields Rameswar Teli from the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat then we will stop BJP leaders from entering tea garden areas. We are very dissatisfied with him because he failed to address the burning issues of the tea tribe in the parliament. We have never seen him voicing our issues in the parliament,” Bagh stated.
He said, “Instead of Rameswar Teli, BJP leadership should place a new face from the Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat. He didn’t raise his voice for the tea tribe people. We are fighting for ST status, land patta, and many other burning issues but after knowing everything Rameswar Teli remained as a ‘mute spectator’ and didn’t utter a voice in support of genuine demands.”
“The BJP government and the incumbent Dibrugarh MP played with us by giving assurance to fulfill our genuine demand. Before the election, they promised us but after winning the election they didn’t fulfill our demand,” he added.
Tea tribe’s people play a major role during the elections and in upper Assam they are the deciding factor because they have a good chunk of population. Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency is one of the major constituencies in Assam where tea garden candidates were given priority.
“Rameswar Teli didn’t think for the welfare of our people because, in the last 10 years, he did nothing for our people. Many tea garden’s land were sold but the Dibrugarh MP didn’t utter his voice. To date, many tea garden workers didn’t get their PF from the company and most of the workers have died but justice has not been served to the family,” said Lakhindra Kurmi, secretary, of Dibrugarh district.
He said, “Land brokers and tea garden owners are selling garden land but the Dibrugarh MP after knowing everything didn’t utter his voice in the issue. A total of 500 bighas of Bokel tea garden land and 64 bighas of Suraj tea estate land were sold. There are many tea estates in Dibrugarh where tea garden lands were sold.”