Guwahati: Assam goes to the polls on Thursday and the Congress party is pulling out all the stops to ensure it doesn't lose ground. Rahul Gandhi will also be campaigning in the state on Monday after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's rally over the weekend.
It was the Prime Minister's first and only election rally in his adopted home state. But will his link to his adopted home state make a difference?
For the record Dr Manmohan Singh has a local address in Guwahati, a small 2 room apartment he rents from the widow of Assam's former chief minister Hiteshwar Saikia. And he will vote in Assam on the 23rd.
"Yes I will be coming here to vote," he said. He also added that his wife will be accompanying him.
By a quirk of fate and some political expediency, Dr Manmohan Singh has represented Assam in the Rajya Sabha for the last 18 years, but has he really managed to connect to the people he speaks for in Parliament?
"No not anymore. He's started a couple of projects here and there, but that's it. As I say, the PM is not a representative for the people of Assam, he is a representative of the Congress party in Assam," says D N Bezbaruah, Former Editor, The Sentinel.
But in a state where identity politics has always influenced elections, Assam's Congress workers are ready to throw their weight behind this outsider.
And yet, one says, "He is not an outsider! He is from Assam!"
"Our PM is like a family member," puts forth another.