A welcome change

(Editorial, Oct 23 2009)
This election to the Roing 43rd constituency comes as a surprise. The newly elected legislative member Laeta Umbrey fulfilled the promise for victory to all those people who had trusted and supported him. The consecutive defeat of INC from Roing in 2006 by-election and 2009 general election has terribly shaken the party base and the conventional wisdom of Mithi’s invincibility has been awfully proved wrong. Following the declaration of poll results, incidences of stray violence are also being reported which is a blot in this democratic process. If INC faces humiliation in its defeat then it must appreciate the fact that Umbrey too had went through that same fate. Today he triumphs as a popularly elected leader defeating all odds with sweeping change in the electorate behavior.

Going by the voting pattern in this Roing election, it shows that Congress retained its support in the rural areas and even fared well in places like lower areas of town like Midland and Agamgite where the party has a poor support base. However it miserably failed to draw support from the govt employees and working class in the urban areas. Traditionally in a state like Arunachal, the electorate mandate is strongly decided by the ruling party factor since it commands the assured support of the govt employees. It was in the 2009 parliamentary election that under the banner of CoSAAP the employees voted massively against the ruling party. However after partial fulfillment of their demand, mood swayed in favour of ruling party with CoSAAP posing no threat, thereby INC gaining absolute majority in the state assembly. Yet it is intriguing that in Roing the govt employees became the decisive factor in determining the poll victory. As had been rumored earlier of Mithi loosing his clout in the state congress party, the electorate behavior in Roing proves the point. It is a great disappointment to supporters of INC who had wished to be on the safer side believing it to be the ruling party. This election went on in the backdrop of great political upheaval for supremacy with reports of infighting within the Congress party.

With the poll deciding factor shifting its loyalty the rich elites from the Idu Mishmi tribal community that enjoyed political supremacy in Roing during Mithi’s rule has come to an end. It is now being professed as the end of Mithi era and the dawn of Umbrey era. The changed electorate behavior is a wake up call to the all those vast majority of local tribal community to shed their old ideas of retaining their economy on the strength of political supremacy. During 90’s when Govt of India declared complete ban on timber business the tribal community then went in a state of depression. However that corrected the behavior of a lavish money culture and made people devote in education looking for prestigious govt jobs. As said ‘All’s well that ends well’, the time now is for local tribal people to inculcate contemporary ideas with education as their strong support base. Thankfully it’s Umbrey who taught the lesson.