Borah on Monday created buzz in poll-bound Assam after resigning from the Congress and withdrawing the resignation hours later. Former chief of the Assam unit of Congress, Bhupen Borah, will join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on February 22, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarmasaid on Tuesday.
The announcement puts to rest the speculations surrounding Borah’s political move after he resigned from the grand old party on Monday and rejoined hours later. The high-profile switch becomes significant ahead of Assembly elections in Assam this year. Sarma said that the Congress should have addressed issues that forced Borah to leave the party after 32 years and taken corrective measures.
Sarma visited Borah’s residence in the Ghoramara area of Guwahati, a day after the senior leader resigned from the Congress. Sarma was welcomed by Borah’s wife and son with ‘aarti’. After the meeting, Sarma said state BJP chief Dilip Saikia would hold discussions with Borah to finalise details of his joining the party.
Borah joining the BJP will show that Congress is not a place for Hindus, he said. Sarma said that Bora has struggled for a long time in the Congress, and he will get a platform in the BJP to do what he wants. Before the meeting with Sarma, Borah had said he would withdraw his resignation if senior leaders Pradyut Bordoloi and Debabrata Saikia convinced him that the party unit was functioning in its true spirit.
“Right now, I am not a member of any political party… I have asked the Congress’s central and state leadership to speak with our two leaders, Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi and Debabrata Saikia. They can collectively tell me on the same call to withdraw my resignation, and that it will remain APCC rather than become APCCR. The Congress I joined is no longer the APCC. It had become APCCR. Whenever the two of them call, I will withdraw my resignation right then,” Borah said.
