Phukan, making his political debut, waves and smiles from an open jeep to urban crowds. Flanked by his wife, Phukan tries to woo voters by speaking in either Assamese, Hindi or Bengali, depending on the crowd he is addressing. "Give me and the AGP a chance to represent this constituency and we shall make a difference", Phukan says in Hindi to a crowd of curious onlookers at Tinsukia, most of whom are Biharis and Rajasthanis. Predictably Phukan's admirers are mostly the young and the women. Most of them come just to catch a glimpse of him rather than due to anypolitical affiliation.

"I have just come to see him because he is an actor", says Brinda Goswami, a housewife in Tinsukia.

Unlike Phukan, Paban Singh Ghatowar, who had won the seat for the last three consecutive terms, believes in direct contact with the people. Ghatowar's tea garden background helps him in wooing his community members in a constituency where the nearly 3,50,000 tea garden voters out of the total one million electorate hold the key to the elections.

A person who started working in plantations as a child removing caterpillars from tea bushes and earning one paise per insect, Ghatowar has struggled hard to become their leader. "Can any of the other candidates speak in our language? The elephant (AGP's poll symbol) wreaks havoc in the villages, while the lotus (BJP's symbol) is meant for rich people who can keep the flower in their drawing rooms. But it is the hand (Congress symbol) which you use to pluck tea leaves and earn your livelihood. So, cast your poll on the hand", Ghatowar saysto a group of garden workers at the Bogapani Tea estate in Digboi.

In his typical colloquial tone, he says that "actors dance and sing" on the stage but hardly bother about the interest of workers. Similarly, according to him, the BJP candidate, Ajit Chaliha, a tea garden owner, is one who goes on "suppressing the needs and demands" of the labourers.

"He has transcended the image of being described as a tea labour leader only. He has become a leader of the Assamese people at large", says LN Phukan, a senior executive at the Digboi Refinery, India's oldest oil refinery.

The question in Dibrugarh is whether the screen image and glamour of a person will obliterate the lifelong work of a labour leader.

India Abroad News Service