Kheroni: The BJP's candidate announcements for the upcoming Assam Assembly election have triggered a wave of discontent and internal rebellion in the tribal belt of Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong, with several senior party leaders left out of the ticket list in what many in the region are calling a deeply misguided decision.
The omissions have stunned local party workers and raised serious questions about the direction of the BJP's electoral strategy in one of Assam's most politically sensitive regions.
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The BJP has denied tickets to a string of prominent and experienced figures across key constituencies in the region.
Those dropped include Dr Numal Momin, a two-term MLA and Deputy Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly (108-Bokajan LAC), Dorsing Ronghang (109-Howraghat LAC), veteran leader Bidyasing Engleng (100-Diphu LAC), Rupsing Teron (Baithalangso LAC), and former cabinet minister Nandita Gorlosa (113-Haflong LAC).
Each of these leaders carries a substantial voter base built over years of grassroots work and community service. Their exclusion, without any clear public justification from the party, has left supporters and party workers deeply unsettled.
In their place, the BJP has fielded relatively lesser-known or newly elevated names — a move that sources within the party describe as arbitrary and politically risky.
The fallout from the ticket denials is already visible on the ground.
Sources indicate that several of the dropped leaders and their supporters are now viewing the officially nominated BJP candidates as rivals rather than colleagues — a dynamic that could split the BJP vote across multiple constituencies.
The internal rifts, if unresolved before polling day, could cost the party dearly in a region where personal loyalty to local leaders often outweighs party allegiance.
Beyond the ticket controversy, the BJP faces a broader trust deficit in Karbi Anglong that has been building over years of unresolved local issues.
Voters in at least four key seats — Bokajan, Howraghat, Diphu, and Amri — are grappling with a range of long-standing grievances that the BJP government has failed to meaningfully address despite years in power.
These include religious polarisation, unresolved PGR and VGR land problems, ongoing border disputes with Nagaland and Meghalaya, bureaucratic obstacles in obtaining land pattas and trading licences for non-tribals, and the fallout from recent evictions in Bakolia.
Together, these issues have deepened resentment among communities that the BJP can ill afford to lose in a region it has counted on for consistent electoral support.
With internal rebellion brewing and voter grievances running high, the BJP faces a genuinely difficult electoral challenge in Karbi Anglong — a challenge that party leaders will need to address urgently if they hope to contain the damage before April 9.
Whether the party's central leadership intervenes to manage the discontent, or allows the situation to fester, may well determine the outcome across several of these constituencies.