dibrugarh when the anticaa agitation hit the state 15 months ago upper assams chabua town in dibrugarh district witnessed the most violent reaction with angry protestors razing down the local railway station a post office a private bank and several public properties angry locals even set on fire the private residence of sitting bjp legislator binod hazarikathe mla had a narrow escape as he fled with his family members when his home was in flameswhile the intensity of the anticaa movement may have watered down the caa issue will definitely be a factor in deciding the fate of the candidates contesting from the chabua assembly seat this time significantly chabua is the native place of chief minister sarbananda sonowal as well as that of paresh baruah the commander inchief of ulfa independentsince 1978 congress had won the chabua seat five times 1983 1991 2001 2006 2011 agp had won twice 1985 1996 once by janata party 1978 and bjp in 2016this time bjp despite having its own mla in chabua has opted out from contesting in the seat as part of its political alliance with asom gana parishad agp bjp has dished out the seat to the regional party the agp has projected an old partyman punkaon baruah as the candidate from the chabua assembly constituencyinterestingly baruah who is agps dibrugarh district president had resigned from the party during the peak of anticaa agitation in december 2019 in protest against his partys procaa stand later he rejoined the partythis time after losing his ticket in his home seat sitting bjp mla binod hazarika has been now given the ticket to contest from the lahowal assembly constituency in 2016 hazarika had defeated sitting congress mla raju sahu by an impressive margin of 30934 votesthough there are seven candidates in the fray the main battle for the chabua seat is expected to be a triangular one involving agp congress and raijor dal ajoy phukan a local youth is the congress candidate from chabua while former agp minister bhaben baruah is contesting on a raijor dal ticketthe other candidates are ananta hazarika of ljp prakash tanti of rlsp and independents priyanka neog and lawrence nag interestingly no major political party has given ticket to tea community candidates this time despite having a large chunk of tea garden votersthe main contest will be between punakon baruah agp and ajoy phukan inc though former agp minister bhaben baruah is also contesting on a raijor dal ticket his support has waned among the voters his arrest in the illegal teachers appointment scam that happened during the agp regime when he was the state education minister is a black spot in his careerthe fate of the agp candidate will depend on the support of bjp supportersit is not sure whether the bjpagp alliance will translate into votes for the agp candidate as the bjp grassroots workers are quite peeved with the party for denying ticket to the incumbent bjp mla binod hazarikathe caa issue is also on