Dibrugarh, Feb. 21: The BJP has turned its attention to the tea belt of Upper Assam, having decided to finalise candidates for the Dibrugarh and Jorhat parliamentary seats. Leading the poll campaign offensive will be a Union minister who has just arrived here.

Union minister of state with independent charge for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Sanghpriya Gautam will stress the “feel-good factor” while launching his party’s poll campaign in the Congress stronghold of Dibrugarh, which is dominated by the tea tribe.

The sitting MP is Assam PCC president Paban Singh Ghatowar, who is also the chief of the Asom Chah Mazdoor Sangha.

“Apart from addressing party workers at the district office here, the minister will attend a public rally at Tiloi later in the afternoon tomorrow,” BJP spokesman for the district committee, Ramananda Das, said here today. Gautam will proceed to Tinsukia on Monday

“One of the major poll planks of the party will be the scheduling of the tea tribes under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. Gautam has been sent to attract the tea voters towards the party,” a BJP source here said.

“Riding piggyback on the tea tribe votes for more than a decade, Ghatowar had done nothing for the tea tribes, even during the bonus crisis last year. That is why tea labourers were killed at Khobang tea estate,” Das said.

The minister will be accompanied by BJP state general secretary Palit Bora.

Bora is also one of four ticket aspirants for the Jorhat seat, the others being tea planter Janaki Nath Hondique, former minister Dulal Baruah and state vice-president Dayananda Borgohain.

The party high command has constituted a three-member panel to finalise the candidates. The committee comprises BJP observer for Assam Arun Sathe, state president Indramoni Bora and Northeast observer V. Satish.

Those in the fray for the Dibrugarh ticket are Kamakhya Prasad Tasha, Ajit Chaliha, Harendra Narayan Dutta, Nakul Baruahare and Lal Bahadur Rabidas.

The Dhubri district BJP today shortlisted three aspirants for the parliamentary seat. These are Golokgunj MLA Dinesh Chandra Sarkar, former legislator Dhruba Kumar Sen and district president Sushil Kumar Das. The names have been forwarded to the state BJP leadership, our correspondent from Dhubri adds.

In Nagaon today, former BJP state unit chief and Rajya Sabha MP Rajen Gohain criticised the state home department for its alleged failure to counter infiltration by Muslim fundamentalists and stop the activities of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, adds our Nagaon correspondent.

Gohain told mediapersons that migration by doubtful voters to central parts of Assam escalated during the tenure of the Tarun Gogoi government, alleging that this led to rapid migration by militants based in Arabia.

He also alleged that a group of agar traders has created a network of the Islamic militant groups based in Arabia. “I think the cat will come out of the bag if the ban on the agar trade is lifted,” he said.