Assam Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi on Wednesday joined the BJP in the presence of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and Assam BJP President, Dilip Saikia. In a jolt to the opposition Congress, Pradyut Bordoloi on Tuesday resigned from the party, barely 20 days ahead of assembly elections in the state.
Bordoloi also met Home Minister Amit Shah after joining the saffron party. He is likely to contest the upcoming election from Dispur Assembly constituency on BJP ticket.
I was feeling suffocated in Congress: Pradyut Bordoloi
On resigning from Congress and joining BJP, Pradyut Bordoloi said," There is no one reason. I was feeling suffocated, and I was being humiliated. " "On 13th March, the Assam CEC meeting was held. I came to know that a communal leader like Imraan Masood said that everything I was talking about and saying about a candidate against whom I had given evidence of a criminal nexus was false and fabricated. Imraan Masood, in the presence of the party's top leadership, had the audacity to say that all that Pradyut Bordoloi said was fabricated. The APCC president present there remained silent. This hurt me a lot."
We aim to bring more Congress leaders into the party: Assam CM
Reacting to the development, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, "...Sitting MP from Nagaon, Pradyut Bordoloi has joined the BJP. His history with the Congress party goes back to 1975; his joining the BJP will strengthen the BJP. We all welcome him to our party. Assam Pradesh BJP will recommend to the central leadership that he should fight the assembly elections...There is no reason for someone with self-respect to stay with the Congress party...We aim to bring more Congress leaders into the party..."
Bordoloi says getting a ticket was not a question of life and death
Earlier in the day, Bordoloi said, "For me, getting a ticket was not a question of life and death. There were multiple issues. What was important for me was to hold my head high. Congress party has given me a lot...I want to make it very clear that I am in my second term in Lok Sabha, and there are another three years to go. I could have accepted the humiliation if I wanted to remain as an MP. But I decided to leave and work..."
Bordoloi sent his resignation letter to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, state media department chairman Bedabrata Bora told PTI in Guwahati.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh and state party chief Gaurav Gogoi, who met the MP in Delhi, claimed that it was a matter of "differences within the family" and "part of an attempt orchestrated by the CM (Himanta Biswa Sarma) through the media to malign Bordoloi politically". A former state cabinet minister and two-time MP from Nagaon constituency, Bordoloi's son Prateek is a Congress candidate from Margherita seat for the state polls due on April 9.
Here's what he said in resignation letter
In the one-line resignation letter addressed to Kharge, the MP said, "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."
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Assam: Congress' Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigns from party ahead of Assembly polls
