35-Year BJP Veteran Jayanta Das Files as Independent in Dispur After Ticket Denial

Former senior BJP leader Jayanta Das filed his nomination as an Independent candidate from the Dispur Assembly constituency on Monday — just two days after resigning from a party he had been associated with for 35 years — in a development that adds a fresh layer of complexity to one of Guwahati's most closely watched contests.

Das said he filed his papers with apprehension, alleging that attempts were made to obstruct his candidature ahead of the filing. "I came quietly," he said, adding that he had feared being stopped from reaching the DC's office or having a case filed against him. "Anything could have happened," he said, while asserting he was "not scared."

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Despite his resignation from the BJP, Das made clear that he has not abandoned the party's ideology — and framed his contest as a fight against the Congress rather than against the BJP itself.

His central argument was pointed: he described both main contenders in Dispur — BJP candidate Pradyut Bordoloi, whom he characterised as a Congress defector, and Congress nominee Mira Borthakur — as belonging to the same political stream.

"Dispur is the only constituency where two Congress candidates are contesting. I have been given the responsibility to defeat them," he said.

Das said the immediate trigger for his resignation was being denied the Dispur ticket despite decades of service to the party — a decision he described as a show of "complete disregard" for long-time workers.

He also accused sections of the BJP's state leadership of sidestepping loyal veterans in favour of new entrants, and of spreading misinformation about his political journey — particularly his brief association with the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in 2013, before he returned to the BJP in 2014. He noted that the AGP is currently an NDA ally.

Looking beyond the election, Das indicated he is considering launching a new political platform, tentatively named "Trinamool BJP" — a move that could signal a longer-term break from the party structure rather than a temporary falling out.

He said his decision to contest as an Independent was driven by both the circumstances he found himself in and what he described as "divine will."