Dispur is not just the capital of Assam. It has turned out to be the most prestigious seat for both the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Congress.

For the AGP, it is its president and state Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta who is contesting from here. In fact, Mahanta's home seat is Barhampur in Nagaon. But, as usual, he has been always contesting from two seats, for reasons best known to him.

However, this time, he has more than one reason behind his selecting Dispur as the second constituency. First, his government and he himself are the most visible in this constituency. Secondly, he is always there, with several of his dream projects, including the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, the largest cultural complex of the country. In fact, if the Chief Minister is in Guwahati, and not available in his office or residence, then the place where is most likely to be is the Kalakshetra.

But he has one more important reason. He needs to eliminate his friend-turned-foe Atul Bora from politics, if possible once and for all. Atul Bora had been his general secretary through thick and thin until the PWD minister revolted when Mahanta effected a reshuffle in his ministry in May, 1998.

Bora complained that he being the senior most colleague in the party as well as the ministry, should have been consulted on the reshuffle. Moreover, when Mahanta wanted him to leave PWD and take over as the forest minister, Bora quit to form the Trinamul Gana Parishad (TGP). He also took away with him former Speaker Pulakesh Barua (contesting as TGP candidate from Barkhetri).

Atul Bora is the second top leader after former Home Minister Bhrigu Kumar Phukan to have deserted and opposed Mahanta. Bora incidentally had tried to tie up with Phukan, but the latter refused to entertain him. According to insiders, it was Bora who had earlier caused a rift between Mahanta and Phukan, because he wanted to move up to the No 2 rank.

Dispur incidentally has been with the AGP since 1985, every time represented by Atul Bora. The party had secured 62.13 per cent votes in Dispur in 1985, which slid down to 33.54 % in 1991 (with 25 candidates in the fray), while in 1996 it went up to 64.91 per cent.

"Those are not Bora's private votes. Those votes belong to the AGP. The voters of Dispur had not asked him (Bora) to quit the AGP," claims Mahanta, who is full of confidence that he will win Dispur hands down.

In fact he has the advantage of the BJP add on, the saffron party being an ally of the AGP now. Though the BJP has not been faring well in the Assembly elections in Dispur (just 3.03 per cent in 1991 and 9.16 in 1996), it did secure 64.36 per cent of the votes in the Dispur segment when Bijoya Chakravarty won the Guwahati Lok Sabha seat in 1999.

Mahanta now has senior BJP leaders like Advani and Vajpayee to campaign for him. "It is a fight between the AGP-BJP combine and the Congress. Smaller parties are simply not in the fray," claims Mahanta, dismissing reports that unseating Atul Bora is an uphill task.

Bora on the other hand feels that Mahanta would be outright rejected by the Dispur voters. "I have been here for the past 15 years. I know each and every household. Moreover, the government employees, who constitute a major chunk of the Dispur voters, simply do not want to hear Mahanta's name," Bora has said.

The Congress on its part is working silently. It fielded Captain Robin Bordoloi, a son of Assam's first chief minister Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi. The party is trying to cash on in the name of Gopinath Bordoloi.

"Dispur used to be known as Sonapur constituency during the time of independence, and it was my father who had represented it," says Captain Bordoloi, who is also playing up his father's name to catch the votes. Captain Bordoloi, who was regional director of the Sports Authority of India till last month, however has problems typical of the Congress party.

Two times defeated candidate Akon Bora, also general secretary of the APCC, who was denied a ticket this time, has not only opposed Bordoloi's candidature, but even initially resisted Bordoloi's entry to the party's district office. "I was initially prevented from entering the party office. Even today he is telling the voters that I am only a dummy candidate and that the Congress is supporting Atul Bora," said Bordoloi.

Vote Share