Major jolt to Assam Cong: Ex-chief set to join BJP

In a major jolt to the opposition Congress in Assam ahead of the assembly polls, its former state president Bhupen Borah will join the BJP on February 22, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Tuesday after meeting him.
Sarma visited Borah’s residence in the Ghoramara area of Guwahati, a day after the senior leader resigned from the Congress. The chief minister was welcomed by Borah’s wife and son with ‘aarti’.
After the over one and a half hours long meeting, Sarma announced that Borah will join BJP along with his supporters, and state BJP president Dilip Saikia will finalise the modalities.
“Borah, along with some of his supporters, will join the BJP in Guwahati, but there will be another joining programme at Lakhimpur from where he hails, as many Congress members have expressed their desire to follow his steps,” Sarma said, with the veteran leader by his side.
Sarma claimed that Borah’s joining BJP would show that Congress is not a place for Hindus.
“He is the last recognised Hindu leader of the Congress here without family antecedents in the party,” he said.
He claimed Bora, who was the state Congress president from 2021 to 2025, has struggled for a long time in the opposition party, and he will get a platform in the BJP to do what he wants.
Sarma, who also switched to the BJP from the Congress in 2015, said he met Borah after a long time.
“We did not talk much about politics but caught up on old times,” he added.