Turncoats in Assam:  Suresh Bora and Uday Shankar Hazarika

Guwahati: As we near the first phase of polling on April 19 for the general elections in the country, let us have a look at a couple of Netas in Assam who switched sides from either BJP to Congress or from Congress to BJP.

Suresh Bora: From Congress to BJP

Suresh Bora who has been a former Congress leader will now be the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in the upcoming polls.

BJP will contest 11 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam, leaving the remaining three seats to its allies.

Suresh Bora has been one of the prominent leaders of the Congress in Assam.

He also served as the former president of the Nagaon District Congress Committee.

Bora contested the Assam assembly election from the Barhampur assembly constituency in 2021.

It was a close battle as BJP candidate Jitu Goswami won and became MLA from this seat by a margin of 751 votes.

While Goswami secured a total of 70,111 votes, Suresh Bora managed to get only 69360 votes.

Bora also contested in the 2011 and 2016 legislative assembly polls from Barhampur constituency.

However, he was defeated in both elections by Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. In 2016, Bora lost by a margin of 5169 votes.

In November 2023, Bora resigned from Congress.

Bora mentioned in his resignation letter that “evolving circumstances lead me to believe that stepping down is in the best interest of both myself and the party.”

Nagaon constituency is considered to be one of the BJP’s bastions in Assam.

However, Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi registered a significant victory in the constituency in the previous Lok Sabha polls.

During the 2019 polls, Bordoloi became MP from this seat by securing 7,39,724 votes.

BJP candidate Rupak Sharma managed to get only 7,22,972 votes.

It was regarded as a big win for the Congress party in the state.

Uday Shankar Hazarika: From BJP to Congress

Uday Shankar Hazarika will be contesting as a Congress candidate from the Lakhimpur constituency.

Hazarika contested three times on BJP ticket — 1998, 1999 and 2004 —from Lakhimpur. However, he never scored a victory and finally quit the BJP in December 2024.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Hazarika switched sides from BJP to Congress and will be contesting from Lakhimpur, replacing three-time MP and former union minister Rani Nara as its candidate of choice.

Nara’s spouse Bharat Narah, also a Congress leader, quit the party soon after his wife was not given the ticket by the Congress.

In this Lok Sabha polls, Hazarika will take on incumbent BJP MP Pradhan Baruah.

The former BJP man is said to be close to Congress state chief Bhupen Kumar Bora, who congratulated him on his candidature and also posted pictures from his nomination rally.

Hazarika has no criminal cases against him.

His assets have grown by 218 per cent over the past eight years, from Rs 3.77 crore in 2016 to Rs 11.8 crore in 2024.