AGP, which was formed after six years of anti-foreigners’ movement, formed governments in 1985-1990 and 1996 to 2001. From 2010, the party saw a massive exodus of leaders to the BJP. Former Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal had joined AGP and later quit the party to join BJP in 2011.
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Many AGP leaders including Chandra Mohan Patowary, Atul Bora and Jagdish Bhuyan left the regional party and joined BJP. Patowary was former AGP president. Earlier, students’ leaders from All Assam Students Union used to make their political debut in AGP. However, things have changed with a large number of former ASSU leaders moving to the BJP gradually. However, most of these leaders are no longer in the electoral fray from BJP.
Another tectonic shift happened when Sarma along with nine others joined the BJP in 2015. Even since then, there has been a steady exodus of Congress leaders to the BJP.
BJP has fielded Pradyut from Dispur, dropping sitting MLA Atul Bora. Former Pradesh Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah has been fielded from Bihpuria by BJP.
A senior BJP leader, who did not want to be named, told ET, “The ticket distribution bore the stamp and authority of Himanta Biswa Sarma and not a single candidate was chosen against Sarma’s wish.”Senior BJP leaders are reaching out to disgruntled BJP leaders after ticket distribution. Senior BJP leader Jayanta Kumar Das, who was in contention for the Dispur seat had criticised Himanta Biswa Sarma and said on Thursday that “old BJP workers are being sidelined in favour of former Congress leaders”.
However, BJP’s northeast in-charge Sambit Patra met Das to discuss the issue. Sarma had also reached out over phone to Atul Bora and Siddharth Bhattacharya.
