In yet another setback to the Congress party in Assam just days ahead of the high-stakes Assembly elections, senior party leader and sitting MP from Nagaon, Pradyut Bordoloi on Tuesday resigned from the party.
“With an overwhelming sense of sadness today, I hereby tender my resignation from all posts, privileges and the primary membership of the Indian National Congress,” Bordoloi said in his resignation letter addressed to Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge.
The development comes days after Bordoloi wrote a letter to AICC-in-charge of Assam, Jitendra Singh, alleging “humiliation” and the “party leadership’s lack of understanding” towards his concerns.
Bordoloi alleged that the sitting Congress MLA from Laharighat, Asif Nazar, was giving patronage to an individual named Emdadul Islam, who was accused of attacking him during panchayat elections last year.
Bordoloi said that UP MP Imran Masood, who is a member of the Congress screening committee for Assam elections, had dismissed his concerns regarding Islam as “false” and that state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi remained silent.
“If my own party’s president from Assam, even after getting all the information about this matter from me, didn’t say anything in response to the things said by Masood in front of the high command, it’s like agreeing (with the Saharanpur MP). So, I felt this is a very big insult. I felt very humiliated,” he told reporters on Monday.
“I was very hurt personally. I have been with the Congress since my school days, I joined the NSUI when I was 16… I have the Congress DNA in me, there is no doubt about it. But this particularly hit my self-respect and I felt insulted,” Bordoloi added.
Following this, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma gave Bordoloi an open offer to join the BJP. He even said that Bordoloi will be given a ticket in the upcoming assembly elections if he decides to join the saffron party.
Last month, senior leader and former state Congress chief Bhupen Borah had also resigned, exposing the fault lines within the state unit of the Congress party and the discontent over Gogoi’s appointment as the new Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief last year, replacing Borah.
Before eventually joining the BJP, Borah had said that he would reconsider his decision if Pradyut Bordoloi and Debabrata Saikia convinced him that the party unit was functioning in its true spirit.