Tinsukia: In Assam’s easternmost constituency, Tinsukia presents a distinct electoral reality. Unlike much of upper Assam, where Assamese identity politics often shapes voting patterns, Tinsukia town has a decisive bloc of Hindi-speaking voters whose roots go back more than a century.These communities, largely descended from migrants of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, were brought during the British era as labourers, traders, railway workers, coal industry hands, masons, and erosion-control workers. Over time, many settled permanently, and today they form a powerful electoral group that no candidate can afford to ignore.Of the nearly 55,000 Hindi-speaking residents in Tinsukia town, around 50,000 are of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh origin who form the Bhojpuri Samaj. Their numbers make them a crucial factor in determining electoral outcomes.Rajendra Prasad Singh of the Bhojpuri community represented Tinsukia as MLA for three consecutive terms from 2001 to 2016 under Congress. After joining BJP in 2019, he boosted the party’s confidence in the constituency. In the current contest, BJP candidate Pulak Gohain and Congress candidate Devid Phukan are both seeking to win over these Hindi-speaking voters, whose support could once again prove decisive.For these voters, the central concerns are not framed primarily around development in the conventional sense, but around dignity, security and land rights. Their demands reflect the experience of communities that arrived as workers and gradually became an integral part of the town’s social and economic fabric.Senior citizen and advocate Shivjee Dubey says security remains the foremost issue. He recalls a time when Hindi-speaking residents faced attacks from militants and local organisations, yet their concerns were not adequately raised in the state assembly or elsewhere. “Security situation has improved significantly over the last decade, but there is still a strong expectation that political leaders must ensure that such insecurity never returns,” Dubey told TOI. He stresses that these communities are made up largely of workers, traders, and small business people who have contributed to the growth of Assam and deserve to live without fear.Dubey also underlines the historical role of Hindi-speaking migrants in building Tinsukia. He argues that when they arrived, there was no established labour class in the Tinsukia area, and their contribution helped shape the town’s economy and infrastructure. For that reason, he says, they should be seen as an inseparable part of Assam rather than outsiders seeking special treatment.Land pattas, or legal land rights, have emerged as a major concern, especially among poorer Hindi-speaking families who have lived in Tinsukia for decades without formal ownership documents. Ajay Kumar Singh, state advisor of the Bhojpuri Yuva Chatra Parishad, says, “now land pattas have become the pressing issue. Despite multiple editions of the state govt’s Vasundhara scheme, many landless Bhojpuri families in Tinsukia and elsewhere in Assam have still not received pattas”.Even families that have managed to buy small plots are aware that many others continue to live on annual pattas, or eksoniya land, and want these converted into periodic or permanent pattas. Awadesh Rastogi of the Sadou Asom Bhojpuri Chatra Sangha also identifies land rights as the main issue for the Bhojpuri community.
