CONGRESS IN DISARRAY

Senior leader Bhupen Borah's switch to the BJP deepens factional strife in the party, even as the saffron side sharpens its polarisation pitch in the state

- Kaushik Deka

ON FEBRUARY 7, ASSAM CHIEF MINISTER HIMANTA BISWA SARMA ordered the state police to register a criminal case against former Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah over allegations that he made an obscene gesture at a public event. The BJP had relentlessly pilloried the leader over the episode, with Sarma even describing the conduct as Borah having “gone to the lowest level”.

Ten days later, the script had flipped. Sarma walked into Borah’s Guwahati residence, sat beside the man he had been hounding, and announced at a press conference that the latter would join the BJP on February 22. The announcement brought to close a high-profile drama that had begun 24 hours earlier, when the two-time MLA and ex-state Congress chief (2021-25), tendered his resignation from the party's primary membership.

In his resignation letter, Borah had accused the new Assam Congress chief, Gaurav Gogoi, of failing to offer a clear response to the BJP allegations regarding his Pakistan visits, and also put the blame on party MP Rakibul Hussain for alienating the majority community in Upper Assam. He claimed that Hussain and AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh's connivance had pushed the organisation to the brink of disaster.