Their destination is a seven km-long journey from Barchapari on a partly battered boat to Sitolmari Chapori, a remote riverine village nestled between the two opposite banks of the Brahmaputra river in central Assam’s Morigaon district. 

A Chapori also called Char in Assam are shifting sandbars on the Brahmaputra River, historically home to mostly Bengali-speaking Muslims after they were first settled in the state’s riverine by the British in the early 19th century. 

As India has gone to vote for the 2024 general election in seven phases, the first phase of which started on April 19, Nurun Nehar, a Bengali-Muslim woman, on the boat to Sitolmari Chapori says it does not matter which government comes to power. 

“Amra Miya (We are Miyas). We do not have anyone,”  Nehar said, with a shrug on whether she will vote on April 26.

“Whoever will be in Delhi, be it the Congress or BJP, they will not think about us.”

Miya is a pejorative term for Bengali Muslims in the state's long history of vilification of the community arising from an alleged illegal Bengali immigration from Bangladesh.

Nehar’s village and over 630 villages under the Morigaon district are going to vote on April 26 in the second phase of this general election to elect a Member of Parliament for the Nowgong constituency. 

Considered one of the most important electoral seats in Assam out of the state’s 14 parliamentary seats, the Nowgong parliamentary seat has been a pitched electoral battle lately.

Thirteen candidates from different political parties, including six from independent parties, are in the fray. However, the contest to win the Nowgong seat with a population of over 18 lakh boils down to three contestants from three parties.

The Congress has fielded the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Parduyt Bordoloi from Nowgong, whereas Aminul Islam, a legislator from the Dhing assembly constituency under Nagaon, is a candidate from All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has also fielded a former militant and a Congress turncoat, Suresh Bora, to contest the poll from the Nowgong seat. 

However, according to observers, the three candidates are fancying their chances after the Nowgong seat became a Muslim-majority Lok Sabha seat in an exercise called delimitation last year which redrew the boundaries of electoral constituencies in Assam.

The exercise, according to experts, has put the ruling BJP in the state in an advantageous position as the redrawing of both the assembly as well as parliamentary constituencies consolidated the party's support base of Assamese Hindus as well as its allies’ voter base in the majority in most of the constituencies. 

However, Nowgong became one of those constituencies where Bengal-origin Muslims have become the majority population which also created heartburn amongst the BJP leaders.   

“Because the Nowgong constituency became a Muslim-majority seat, the BJP is trying to portray themselves as good samaritan to Muslims to win the seat,” Dalil Uddin Ahmed, who teaches Economics at Moirabari College, said. 

Incidentally, the Assam Chief Minister from the BJP last year while talking to reporters said he does not need Miya votes for 10 years.

“But now the state’s BJP seems to be campaigning on development and government schemes to woo the Muslim votes,” Ahmed added.

A year later, however, Sarma seems to have mellowed down his stance on Bengali Muslim votes.

“We hope to get the support of the Muslims in this election. If they do not vote for us, we will analyse to find out where we fell short,” Sarma said while campaigning for another BJP candidate in the Darrang-Udalguri constituency with a sizable Bengali Muslim population.

BJP’s plank on developmental and government schemes to tap into the voter base of Bengali Muslims who either vote for the Congress or AIUDF which represents their interests is also evident when Sarma’s close aid state’s cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika recounted government schemes and job distribution among the people Bengali-Muslims living in Chars.  

This has, in effect, rallied some support for the saffron party from the state’s one of the most marginalised communities. 

“I will vote for Himanta Biswa Sarma and Modi [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] and so will my family members,” Shukri Khantun who is from Sitolmari Char told Object.

“BJP gave me Orunodoi — a government scheme that provides monthly financial assistance for women  — and so many other things. There is hope for us if BJP is in power.” 

A few first-time voters around Khatun grinned and shook their heads hearing her say this. One among them Mirazul Haque, a 23-year-old man, feels BJP hates “my community”. “If they come to power again, they will start with the eviction again, and demolish our madrassas.”

He was referring to the demolition of Madrassas in Assam and the spree eviction drives in the state since Sarma became the state’s chief minister in 2021 which many say targets the state’s minority Muslims. 

‍Over 10000 families have been evicted in Assam, mostly Bengali Muslims since BJP first formed a government in the state with its alliances in 2016. 

President of Char Chapori Sahitya Parishad, a literary body of Bengali Muslims, Hafiz Ahmed told Object that BJP is still a long shot away from winning the hearts of Bengali Muslims.

“The people of Char Chaporis know how the BJP treated them. Their outreach to the community will only give 2-3% of their votes,” he said.

“There may be a contest, but the Congress is winning.”

His calculation is somewhat reflected in the flags of Congress hoisted in many houses in Sitolmari when Object visited the riverine village on 23 April. 

To many of the residents, they may face repercussions from the BJP for unfurling the flags of the Congress. Others weighed in saying that with the BJP neglecting them, “Congress is the only way.”

“We will vote for Congress so that they save our houses from this continuous erosion,” said Noorjahan Begum, when asked who she would vote for and why.

Assam has a perpetual soil erosion issue as each year the Brahmaputra and its tributaries eat away vast swaths of villages along their way. 

Since 1950, the state has lost over 4.27 lakh of land, which accounts for more than 7% of the state’s geographical area, due to river erosion by the Brahmaputra and its tributaries. 

The mighty river also wiped out over 2500 villages over the years, including those along the Brahmaputra river in Morigaon. 

The river also swept away a huge chunk of the Garaimari village, another sandbar next to Sitolmari. Begum’s husband Umar Ali who died 14 hours ago was buried there.

“But the river swept him away, leaving no trace of him.”

“It was dehumanising. It’s also forbidden in my religion, even my children cannot visit their father’s grave, and there is no pain bigger than this” Khatun, who is 55, said, her eyes welling up on the boat ride to Sitolmari.