Denied a ticket by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the prestigious Dispur seat, sitting MLA Atul Bora now faces an uncertain political future as he weighs his options after being replaced by former Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi.
Bora, who has represented Dispur since 2016, is among 19 sitting MLAs, including a minister, who were dropped as the party fielded several new and younger candidates, including a sizeable number of those who switched sides from the Congress, across 88 constituencies where candidates were announced on Wednesday.
A sizeable section of the ruling party's candidates are former Congress members—some who switched over a decade ago, such as chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and others like Bordoloi, who resigned as a Lok Sabha MP and joined the BJP just a day before being given a ticket.
Apart from Sarma and Bordoloi, another senior Congress leader, Bhupen Kumar Borah, who quit the grand old party last month and joined the BJP, has been given the ticket for Bihpuria, which he had represented twice earlier.
The important factor behind these switches since 2015 has been Himanta Biswa Sarma himself. Having left the Congress along with nine MLAs after being sidelined for the CM's post, the 57-year-old has been able to orchestrate defections from his old party due to his good equations with most leaders.
