Guwahati

Former Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah, who is set to join the BJP, on Wednesday claimed that the state unit of the Congress is no longer under the control of Gaurav Gogoi and that Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain is now its “sole base”.

In an interview to PTI-Video, Borah alleged that Gogoi, the Assam Congress president, has been reduced to being “just the face of the party”.

“Rakibul Hussain, who won the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 10 lakh votes, is the sole base of the party,” Borah claimed.

He said that after he sent his resignation letter to the Congress high command on Monday, Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, called him and spoke at length about the relationship they had shared since 2007.

“He spoke about how we helped the party grow and how he supported me over the years. But he did not say a single word about my resignation letter,” Borah claimed.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced that Borah would join the BJP on February 22 after meeting him at his residence.

Borah, who was also chairman of the Assam Sanmilita Mancha—an alliance of 16 opposition parties—said internal disagreements during the 2024 bypolls to five assembly constituencies marked a turning point in his relationship with the party leadership.

He said it had been decided within the alliance that a CPI(ML) candidate would contest the Behali seat, as the party had secured around 40,000 votes there earlier.

“I agreed, but my proposal was not accepted by the AICC. Instead, discussions began around other names and finally a person who was not even a Congress member till then was named as the candidate,” he alleged.

Borah said alliance partners later questioned the Congress leadership’s intent if it could not concede even one seat in a bypoll. “On moral grounds, I resigned as the head of the coalition, and the Congress candidate lost badly,” he said.

He claimed he raised the issue at a Congress Working Committee meeting but received no response, adding that he also faced “personal humiliation”.

Borah further alleged that he had written to Gogoi a month ago, warning that he would address a press conference against him as he could “no longer tolerate the humiliations”. Despite sharing the letter with senior leaders, including the state in-charge, he said there was no response.

“I realised there was no need for me in the party, and I resigned,” he said.

He also claimed that on February 9, Congress state in-charge Jitendra Singh chaired a meeting where Borah was asked to take forward talks for an opposition alliance ahead of the assembly elections.

“I accepted it as a party decision and felt an alliance was necessary, as Congress cannot tackle the BJP alone,” he said.

However, Borah alleged that the following day Gogoi informed him that Rakibul Hussain would be actively involved in the alliance talks, which he said was not the decision taken at the meeting. He further claimed that differences over this issue led to public statements by Gogoi contradicting him, which he described as another instance of public humiliation.

Recounting his long association with the Congress, Borah said he had spent 32 years in the party and joined it as a student after being invited by former Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia.

Drawing a parallel, he said, “Just as the present chief minister came to my residence yesterday and invited me to join the BJP, Hiteswar Saikia had once invited me to join the Congress.”

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Borah also recalled sustaining injuries during Bharat Jodo Yatra near Guwahati, saying he was left with a bleeding nose during the march.