The direct benefit transfer scheme of the Narendra Modi government may prove to be a game-changer in tea plantation area of Assam where tea plantation workers also known as tea tribe communities hold the trump cards in first phase of polling for five Lok Sabha seats in Assam.
The five parliamentary seats going to poll in the first phase — Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Lakhimpur, Tezpur, and Kaliabor — are essentially tea garden concentrated, with 70 percent of tea gardens located in upper Assam. There are over 850 tea gardens in the state with 60 lakh workers, accounting for more than 17 per cent of the total population.