Tinsukia: Raijor Dal’s young candidate Rahul Chetry on Monday vowed to deliver a “New Margherita” if elected from the 83rd Margherita LAC in Assam’s Tinsukia district.
Speaking to the media after filing his nomination, Chetry said, “I have come for justice for farmers, mothers, and youth… to fulfil the mission and vision of Raijor Dal, I promise a new and progressive Margherita.”
Chetry filed his nomination papers on Monday at the Deputy Commissioner’s office, the last day for submissions, accompanied by a large, energetic crowd of supporters. The son of a small tea grower and a grassroots activist, he has positioned himself as a voice for ordinary citizens.
Meanwhile, Bhaskar Sharma, the two-term Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Margherita, is seeking a third consecutive victory in the 2026 Assam Assembly polls. He won the seat in 2016 by defeating Congress heavyweight Pradyut Bordoloi and retained it convincingly in 2021.
Sharma has positioned himself as a representative of the ruling BJP’s development agenda in resource-rich but challenge-laden Margherita.
Margherita, a resource-rich constituency in upper Assam, faces several long-standing challenges, including illegal timber smuggling, hazardous rat-hole coal mining, severe industrial pollution, acute water shortages, chronic unemployment, outdated education infrastructure, and growing wildlife threats from habitat encroachment near reserve forests.
Chetry’s campaign has gained traction through direct conversations with villagers, tea garden workers, and unemployed youth, presenting Raijor Dal as a party rooted in people’s struggles rather than corridors of power. His message of “soil versus money and power” is resonating in an area long dominated by the BJP’s sitting MLA.
Local residents echoed this sentiment. “For years we have breathed coal dust and lost our forests to smugglers. Water is dirty, jobs are nowhere. If Rahul delivers even half of what he promises, Margherita will finally breathe,” said Bhuvneshwari Mahananda, an environmental activist.
Political observers note that Chetry’s energetic, mass-connected style, along with Raijor Dal’s alliance dynamics with Congress on select seats, has complicated the electoral equation for the BJP, which has held the seat for years.
The impact of the ‘New Margherita’ vision remains to be seen on April 9, as the constituency prepares for a contest featuring the ruling BJP, a rising Raijor Dal, and several regional candidates.