Eye on Assam polls, ABVP gears up for the big fight

Guwahati: Dislodging the dominance of All Assam Students Union (Aasu) and National Students Union of India (NSUI), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarathi Parishad (ABVP) has made a firm entry across different educational institutions in Assam.
For the first time, ABVP has managed to capture the union body of premier educational institutions in state, Cotton College in Guwahati and Gauhati Commerce College.

The student body is now gearing up for the big electoral fight of Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University students' body election which will be held shortly .

Students' politics has played a vital role in Assam. Aasu has in the past mobilized students support and spearheaded the six-year long anti-foreigners movement (1979-1985). Later, the leaders of the movement went on to form the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) that ruled Assam during 198590 and 1996-2001.

Shreehari Borikar, National General Secretary of ABVP told ET, “Last year, we won a seat in Cotton College union body. This time, we have increased our tally to five. We have made a clean sweep in Gauhati Commerce College.“

From Upper Assam to Lower Assam, ABVP now has presence in almost all the areas. Last year, ABVP made its presence felt in 78 colleges and this time it is targeting to capture as many as 150 educational institutions.

Borikar said youths are getting attracted to ABVP. “Three years back, we had a membership strength of 13,000 and now it has gone up to over 52,000,“ he said.

He said ABVP will play a big role in the 2016 assembly elections. “Our workers will create awareness about the prevailing state of affairs in Assam. They will ask voters to come out and vote,“ he added.

Political analysts too opined that the growing clout of ABVP will benefit the Saffron wing in the 2016 assembly elections. “ABVP has made a firm footing in the Congress stronghold of Upper Assam,“ an analyst said.

Aasu General Secretary; Lorin Jyoti Gogoi, however argued that Aasu is holding its ground.

“It is seen that when a new party comes to power in the Centre, state youths tilt towards that party . ABVP has made some inroads into urban centres but not in rural areas where Aasu still has a strong presence,“ Gogoi said.