It is a sunny, calm afternoon in the town of Mankachar in the South Salmara-Mankachar district, located at the southwestern tip of Assam. A group of shopkeepers sits next to a tea shop across from a graffiti wall of Assamese cultural icon Zubeen Garg, even as the more pious residents of the city center prepare to close their shops and head to the mosque for afternoon prayers.
With more than 95% of the district’s population following Islam, about 4.15 lakh voters in the region have elected two legislators — one from Salmara South and one from Mankachar — till the 2021 assembly elections in the state. But as the state heads to the polls on April 9, voters here will choose one candidate to represent them — a consequence of Assam’s delimitation exercise in 2023, when two constituencies were merged into one, called Mankachar.
The region, which has elected a combination of MLAs from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and the Indian National Congress for at least the past decade, now faces a battle between the AIUDF, the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) for one seat in the Assam Legislative Assembly.
Residents here, who identify as Khilonjia (native) Muslims, settled here on or before 1951 and registered in the 1951 National Register of Citizens, speak of a lack of roads, health care and jobs, even as they ponder how to respond to the “anti-Miya” and “ghuspaithiya” (ghuspaithiya) of the ruling BJP. While some residents claim that the injuries caused by this rhetoric will make it an even fight between the Congress and the AIIUD, others rationalize the injuries as part of the insults that Muslims have always faced in Assam.
The district is bound by the international border with Bangladesh in the west and the vast expanse of the lower Brahmaputra in the north, beyond which lies Dhubri and the rest of Assam. To the east lies the state of Meghalaya, which served as the center of most trade in the region. The only road connecting the region to the rest of Assam is through Meghalaya and the journey by boat to Dhubri takes about three to four hours.
At a gathering of downtown traders, 60-year-old Zakiul Islam paints a grim picture. “What have we gained in the last decade or two. No development – the roads are the same, we have to travel for hours for something as simple as an X-ray, and there are young people in every household who cannot secure jobs despite having completed their undergraduate and post-graduate studies. Moreover, trade with Meghalaya has almost stopped in the last few months,” Mr Islam said.
In neighboring Meghalaya, increasing communal violence over the past few months between the tribal Garo communities and the Bengali-speaking Muslims of the West Garo hills has further escalated tensions between Assam and Meghalaya, which already dispute the state border. “I don’t know if it is because we are Muslims or because we speak Bengali. But none of us have been able to go to our regular markets in or outside the Tura region of Meghalaya to shop,” said 49-year-old cloth trader Abdul Wahid.
A few hundred meters away, Muhammad Abdul Hussain (59) sits in his convenience store. “Am I an Indian citizen or not? When the CM starts speaking this language, it will only hurt their party’s allies in the region. It’s all just politics in the end. Politicians will fight it out among themselves and we will remain as we are, nothing will change,” Mr Hussain said.
An ally of the ruling BJP, the AGP is contesting the Mankachar seat, with Zabed Islam as its candidate. He will be pitted against Indian National Congress’ Mohibur Rohman and AIUDF’s Abdul Salam Shah. While both Mr Islam and Mr Rohman have been MLAs from the region before, Mr Shah has not and replaces the sitting AIIUDF MLA from the seat, Aminul Islam, who made a flurry of party changes just before the elections before settling in the Congress.
AUIDF’s selection of Mr Shah, who had contested on a BJP ticket in 2016, comes despite the party fielding party president Badruddin Ajmal and his son Abdur Rehman Ajmal in the Assembly from here.
Near a tea shop in the center of town, Mr. Zakiul Islam, who deals in dry fruits and betel nuts, praises Zabed Islam and his parents, who both represented Mankachar in the Assam Assembly for several terms. “Of course it hurts us to hear the CM talking the way he is doing. It started with Hindu-Muslim politics, then Himanta’s (Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma) anti-Miya speeches and now the BJP central leadership is pushing the ghuspaithiya language. But what should we do? Now, ruling party leaders believe they are visiting us and promising Idons. v is Zabed Islam,” said Mr. Zakiul Islam.
“We don’t know how to explain the lack of development in our region for decades. Either because MLAs were apathetic or because they were incompetent because they were in opposition parties or won as independent candidates,” Mr Wahid said, continuing from Mr Islam’s remarks.
“But I know that every person in our city who has a government job or worked in Anganwadis or as an ASHA worker got these jobs because it was arranged by Zabed Islam’s parents,” said Mr. Zakiul Islam.
Published – 07 Apr 2026 20:13 IST
