After finalising his move to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, former Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. He was accompanied by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and the meeting was also attended by Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
Bordoloi formally joined the BJP on the same day, wearing the party’s colours after resigning from the Indian National Congress in a last-minute move, as political parties rush to finalise candidates ahead of the upcoming elections.
Once a vocal critic of the BJP and a committed Congress leader, Bordoloi has become the second major figure after Bhupen Borah in recent times to switch to the saffron party, marking a significant departure from the Congress.
His exit represents a major loss for the Congress, as the party not only loses a senior leader but also one of its three sitting MPs from Assam. Bordoloi confirmed that he has stepped down from his Lok Sabha seat.
On Tuesday, he expressed “overwhelming sadness” while submitting his resignation to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. Despite efforts by Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi and state in-charge Jitendra Singh, who visited his Delhi residence after his resignation, they were unable to persuade him to remain in the party, similar to the case of Bhupen Borah.
As the BJP prepares to announce its list of candidates for the Assam Assembly elections, Bordoloi is expected to contest from the Dispur constituency. The party has begun its parliamentary committee meeting in the national capital under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where the candidate list is set to be finalised and released.
Senior leaders including Amit Shah and Nitin Gadkari, along with BJP leaders from Assam, including the Chief Minister, are attending the meeting.
Meanwhile, party insiders indicated that five sitting MLAs from Assam have been dropped from the ticket list, with several new faces likely to be introduced.
