A good way to do election coverage is to do a self-appraisal of what we ourselves have covered in the last five years in our area of coverage. Often our performance is as poor as our political leaders.

There are certain places we visit only during elections and like politicians forget them for the next five years. Now the five yearly rituals have come upon us once again and my route map has been drawn up.

It's no surprise therefore that a remote township of Kheroni was the venue for L K Advani's first election rally. Kheroni is near Diphu bordering two troubled districts - Karbianglong and N C Hills.

My last visit to Kheroni was almost five years ago when a large number of people were killed in one of the routine attacks in the area. On an average at least two dozen people are killed here annually in militant and ethnic unrest but neither the politicians nor the media venture to tour the sugarcane fields of Kheroni.

Though we were advised not to travel in the evening our local resource person was reassuring. It's little short of a backbreaking journey through patches of the famed east west corridor. The two sides of the dusty road present a dismal picture of very tardy development.

Lanka is a township anglicized from its original Laungka in Dimasa, which means friendship. Surely it must be a very hospitable place.

A mela rarely seen any longer in these parts was drawing a huge crowd. Its giant wheel, row of chat shops and the motorcycle daredevil stunt posters was very inviting.

A little further away, Theatre Bhagyadevi was entertaining neighbouring villages with some performance. Mobile theatres are a phenomenon in Assam and are immensely popular.

Our destination was Doyangmukh at the border of the two hill districts. One Mr Talukdar was waiting for us at the Inspection Bungalow. The Bungalow is otherwise a haunt of members of militant outfits of that area who must have been very generous to vacate them for us to occupy the rooms.

The following morning I realised that the Bungalow is situated on the banks of the Doyang River and is actually quite pretty.

It's a sugarcane country and it's from here that Assam produces its jaggery, medicines and low-grade liquor.

More than 60 per cent of the population is indigenously from Bihar. Settled here for over a hundred years in many cases.

This was a first for me. An early morning drive to a sugarcane field and drinking some of the ganney ka ras that I avoid like a plague in city carts which appear to me as infested with disease carriers. But it was clean and refreshing here. Ramdhar Chauhan came here as a teenager from UP.

Many like Chauhan in this trade have been targets of militant groups. The xenophobic movement has its tentacles active in this trade. In the last two years more than a hundred Bihari settlers have been killed.

Victims of a discriminatory land act of the Karbianglong Autonomous Council these settlers literally live on the edge.

But even for Chauhan and his community neighbourhood , L K Advani's arrival was not something they were looking forward to.

Chauhan says they would prefer not to vote but then their names would be deleted from the electoral rolls and that's worse for them. As we left the Chauhan household got back to making jaggery.

It's interesting however why Advani chose Kheroni as the venue of his first election rally.

Besides children who were waiting to see a helicopter descend on their school field there wasn't any enthusiasm to greet the leader. Maybe they aren't used to having politicians of his stature visit them.

The saffron smoke alert for the helicopter was perhaps just a coincidence but suited the occasion.

The tiny crowd failed to fire him and the speech was uncharacteristic of the otherwise fiery Advani. There were no punch lines and the media certainly felt let down. The first three paragraphs were repetition of what he always says when in Assam.

These are templates political campaigners have in their memory. It begins with the history of his political career, the birth of Jan Sangh, and his standing witness to all Indian prime ministers; the achievements of NDA and the failures of Congress; and of course the grand promise of a change that no one is even expecting.

Incidentally Dimasas who inhabit N C Hills once ruled over Assam and had their capital in Dimapur now part of Nagaland. The rude cycle of time has made this district amongst the most underdeveloped in the country.

The district is virtually controlled by a few gangs of well-organised armed men and women who have held everything to ransom.

Neighbouring Karbianaglong compliments N C Hills in every aspect of underdevelopment and lawlessness.

One of the largest districts in the country, it's the most strategic junction for almost all militant groups of the region. Adopted by the NSCN(IM), this is Assam's liberated zone.

To overcome the impossible logistics, two national communication projects were launched but under severe stress all work is more or less suspended. Engineers and workers are routinely abducted for huge ransoms. Sometimes killed. Ironically a hundred and fifty years ago the British had constructed the famous Hill Section cutting through numerous tunnels.

It's a serious situation here. Healthcare is poor. Education facilities are far below average. There are no employment opportunities. The entire system is based on a culture of extortion. And politics is not removed for this culture either.