Assam | Road to power goes via tea gardens: PM Modi plucks tea leaves, interacts with workers

Before his public rallies in poll-bound Assam on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited a tea garden in Dibrugarh, interacted with women workers, plucked tea leaves, took selfies, and described tea as the “soul of Assam”.

“At a tea garden in Dibrugarh this morning, got a glimpse of the culture of tea garden families. Their contribution to Assam’s progress is unparalleled,” he wrote in a series of messages on X after the visit to the tea plantation — a crucial catchment area for votes in any political party and election, particularly in Assam, due to a combination of factors such as high population density, strategic voting behaviour, and the demand for welfare-oriented policies.

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Engaging in symbolic activities such as plucking tea leaves, PM Modi interacted with women workers. “The plucking of tea leaves was followed by the women talking about their culture and, of course, a selfie!” he wrote, calling it a “very memorable experience”.

Interestingly, the tea plantations of Assam not only send tea across the world, but they also form a significant and concentrated vote bank with the capacity to sway electoral outcomes in several constituencies.

According to observers, the Prime Minister’s visit reinforced that the road to power in Assam runs directly via its tea gardens.

“The community has a distinct identity, largely brought in as indentured labour, which has fostered a unique political culture that acts as a strong, unified bloc. In states like Assam and West Bengal, tea gardens are not merely agricultural estates but powerful electoral engines. The tea tribe community comprises around 18 to 20% of the state’s population and is a deciding factor in around 40 of the 126 Assembly seats,” they add.

Often referred to as “tea tribes”, the tea garden workers and their families and dependents are crucial for political parties, especially across the tea-growing belts of eastern, northern, and southern parts. Since they often vote as a bloc and are geographically clustered, they hold considerable political influence. In West Bengal, too, there are nearly 20 lakh such voters in the northern parts, making them a deciding factor in several key constituencies in the region.

Historically, tea garden workers voted for the Congress; however, over the years, they seem to have shifted allegiance, becoming an important bloc for the saffron party.

However, issues such as low daily wages, land rights (pattas), and better infrastructure — including schools and roads — remain key concerns.

While the distribution of land pattas (ownership deeds) to around 3.5 lakh tea garden families under Mission Basundhara addressed a 200-year-old demand for legal security, recently, the Himanta Biswa Sarma government also notified an interim increase in the minimum wage of tea plantation workers.

But most tea estates are said to have strongly opposed the move to distribute land pattas to workers.

While both the moves linked to the April-9 polls are strategic in nature, access to better healthcare, education, and basic amenities in isolated garden areas remains a central issue, ground reports suggest.