Guwahati, April 17 2009: When Adivasi teen Lakshmi Oran was stripped and attacked by a group of hoodlums in the heart of this city in November 2007, it created uproar not just in Assam but in tribal belts across the country.

The incident took place not far from state capital Dispur, but chief minister Tarun Gogoi's police were nowhere in sight to protect either Lakshmi or the Adivasi protesters who were badly beaten up by locals in retaliation for an attack on shops and cars by some tribal hot heads.

The anger and hurt of the Adivasis has remained.

As Lakshmi was underage, initially her name was not made public.

But the spirited kid soon began giving interviews and blasting the government.

She made the point that the tea garden labour class had never really got its due.

In fact, Lakshmi is eager to join national politics.

She and her family approached the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) for a ticket.

But because Lakshmi is a minor, AUDF has given the Tezpur ticket to her father Debang Oran.

The Adivasi tea garden votes in the area will go to the AUDF nominee.

The Congress has fielded the controversial Mani Kumar Subba from Tezpur and expects him to win.

The constituency has a large number of Nepali settlers who have regularly voted for Subba.

But this time, many of the local Assamese middle-class population want to reject him.

They believe the Congress has no right to field a candidate whose nationality is in question.

Asked why a person like Subba was given a ticket, Congress sources said: "Basically, we want to win the seat and Subba is a bankable candidate.

He is also the man who helped us when we were in the opposition and were badly in need of money to fight election," a top party leader said.

Assam for long has been a bastion of the Congress, except for a brief period when the anti-foreigners agitation was at its peak.

But over the years, it is losing out on minorities and the tea garden labour -- the two planks on which the Congress fortunes in Assam have traditionally rested.

These two communities have the tendency to vote en mass and return most Congress men to parliament.

This time, however, the Muslim vote will be split with Badruddin Ajmal's AUDF cornering a major share.

The Congress' other plank, the Adivasi tea garden workers, is also fraying.

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