Guwahati: On 23 August, 2015, BJP’s then Assam chief Siddhartha Bhattacharya, who had joined the party in 1995 when it held little sway in the state, drove then Congress strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma to senior BJP leader Amit Shah’s Delhi residence.
Shah allayed Sarma’s concerns about his future in the BJP, assuring him that he would be a prized asset in dislodging the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress from power in Assam. However, Shah also made it clear that Sarma would not be the BJP’s chief ministerial face in the elections due in early 2016.
Following the meeting, Bhattacharya revealed as much to reporters, speaking with an authority generally associated with an organisation’s established old guard.
“It was made clear at the meeting that the chief ministerial candidate would be from the BJP,” Bhattacharya told The Telegraph.
Bhattacharya also played a crucial role in getting Sarma’s induction back on track after a press conference nearly derailed it, in which prominent BJP leaders Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju raised corruption allegations against him.
Two days later, on 25 August, 2015, when Sarma formally joined the BJP, Bhattacharya stood beside him at the press conference and held his hand aloft, presenting him to public as a key new entrant.
A decade later, as Assam heads to another election, this time under Sarma’s leadership as CM, Bhattacharya finds himself relegated to the sidelines. He is one of the 19 MLAs dropped from the BJP’s candidate list announced on 19 March for the elections scheduled on 9 April.
Bhattacharya, who had led the Assam BJP from August 2014 to November 2015, issued a restrained response after being dropped, stating that his work as a legislator speaks for itself and that he harbours no resentment against the party.
However, others have not been as muted.
The presence of Congress turncoats on the BJP’s list has caused considerable heartburn among many ticket hopefuls, including senior leaders such as Atul Bora, a five-term MLA and former minister, whom the party dropped from the prestigious Dispur constituency, the nerve centre of Assam’s power corridors.
More than Bora being dropped, what has rankled a large section of BJP leaders and workers in the area is the replacement, Pradyut Bordoloi, MP from the Muslim-dominated Nagaon constituency, who became the second major Congress leader, after Bhupen Borah, to quit the party and join the BJP ahead of the polls.
A livid Bora has indicated that he may either endorse Congress nominee Mira Borthakur Goswami or enter the fray himself as an independent.
With 23 March being the last day for filing nominations for the elections, Bora is not the only one keeping the BJP leadership on tenterhooks.
On Saturday, Jayanta Das, another BJP leader associated with the party for over three decades, resigned. Das, who was a frontrunner to replace Bora as a candidate until Bordoloi entered the picture, lashed out at Sarma for running a “ticket syndicate” and announced his plan to contest as an independent candidate from Dispur.
“While being denied a party ticket during the elections has caused me pain, what has hurt me even more is the disregard for my 35 years of service. When the sentiments of a long-serving worker hold no value, it becomes impossible to remain while compromising one’s self-respect. The BJP is a party shaped by us, not Himanta Biswa Sarma,” Das told reporters.
Of the 88 candidates named by the BJP, as many as 28, including Sarma, have switched over from the Congress over the last decade. The Assam unit of the Congress Saturday took a swipe at the BJP over accommodating turncoats in its candidate list.
“Congratulations to the BJP’s nominated candidates. Veteran leaders and workers loyal to the saffron party are gradually being erased from the organisation,” it posted on X.
On his part, Sarma has not betrayed any nerves over the brewing dissent, downplaying the potential damage rebels can inflict on the BJP’s prospects. However, there are indications the BJP’s central leadership is not willing to take chances.
On Friday, the party’s Northeast in-charge Sambit Patra visited the residences of Bhattacharya and Das to placate them. Sarma also rushed to meet Bora Friday, hours after the Congress’s Dispur candidate visited the veteran leader’s residence to seek his support.
“Before we headed to Delhi, there was no doubt that he would contest from Dispur. However, due to specific political reasons, we could not allot him the nomination. It is only natural to feel bad on the first day, and they are entitled to say some things against us. Today, I spoke to him, and he is with us,” Sarma told reporters after the meeting.
Discord has also hit the BJP in other parts of the state. For instance, in Barak Valley’s Dholai, the party’s sitting MLA Nihar Ranjan Das resigned after being denied a ticket, expressing disappointment that his contribution had not been recognised.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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