New Delhi: Yes congress Undecided even before the Assam assembly elections?Earlier on Sunday, the Congress party in Assam faced its biggest setback yet with former state president Bhupeng Bora formally joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) at their headquarters, Vajpayee Bhawan. While the defection of a state president is a seismic event in itself, the real significance of this moment for Congress lies in its similarities to the events of 2015.As the state gears up for the 2026 assembly elections, the ghosts of the past seem to be back to haunt the age-old party.
Himana left the Congress ahead of the 2016 assembly elections, despite Sarma playing a key role in managing the party’s 2011 election campaign and helping the party win an unprecedented 79 seats in the 126-member assembly.Recalling the incident recently, Sarma claimed that Sonia had actually been cleared of the chief minister’s post – just because of a phone call Rahul Gandhi Change everything.“Miss(Sonia Gandhi), as I still call her, asked me to decide the date and I told her that I would take oath the day after the Ambubachi Mera ceremony at Kamaga Temple in June (2014),” he said.
“Things changed after Rahul Gandhi called,” Sarma added.Already seen itHistory repeated itself in Borah’s case. After his resignation, Congress leaders reached out to the long-faced Bora but to no avail. All India Congress Committee (AICC) national chief Jitendra Singh said Bora had “withdrawn” his resignation after discussions with the party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, but the resignation was yet to be accepted.However, Bora claimed that Rahul called him but did not say a word about his resignation letter.“He mentioned how we helped the party grow and he also helped me over the years, which is true, but he did not mention a word about my resignation letter,” Bora told news agency PTI.
“I told Rahul Gandhi that I felt humiliated in the party and then he said that he felt humiliated too. So what is the value of my humiliation? I cannot tolerate such humiliation as I do not have that much capability,” he added.During this time, the Assam chief minister announced that the doors of the BJP were open to Bora and promised to help him win “safe seats” in the assembly elections.Why Bora severed ties with CongressMany hot-button incidents fueled the animosity between Borah and the Congress. In his letter to Haq, Bora listed his grievances against Gaurav Gogoi and Rakipur Hussain.After quitting the party, Bora launched an attack on some Congress leaders but did not name them. He said he was ready to stay in the Assam Congress Committee (APCC) but not in the “APCC(R)”, an apparent reference to Hussain.“The prevailing perception in Assam is that the Congress party is coming under the influence of Rakipur Hussain, a leadership arrangement that has not resonated with a large section of the majority community in Upper Assam. His apparent connivance with Shri Jitendra Singh has further propelled the party towards disaster, pushing it to the brink of disaster and leading it to political doom. After all, politics is as much about ideas as it is about principles, and when the confidence of key constituencies is eroded, the consequences are neither trivial nor short-lived. ” the letter read.Bora also accused Gogoi of marginalizing him in the party’s decision-making process.“I can withstand personal reversals, but self-respect and dignity are not currencies I can trade for. I found myself neither consulted on the substantive issues of the party nor treated with the respect I deserved from senior colleagues. I do not express these thoughts out of resentment but out of genuine confusion as to why I seem to be marginalized at the hands of Gaurav Gogoi and Rakipur Hussain,” the letter read.He later claimed that Gogoi had undermined the opposition alliance he had formed years earlier, fearing that he might not become chief minister if the opposition came to power “by chance”.“What is the point of involving Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain in the negotiations when I was given the responsibility on February 9 to take the alliance forward again?” he asked.“Perhaps Gogoi feels that if the alliance is formed, Bhupembora will be friendly and throw everything before Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, threatening his existence,” he claimed.Bora, who is the chairman of the Assam Samilita Mancha, a front of 16 opposition parties, also claimed that ahead of the 2024 by-elections to five parliamentary constituencies, it was decided that the CPI(ML) candidate would contest the Behari seat as the organization had secured 40,000 votes in the last election.“I agreed, but my proposal was not considered by the AICC. Two or three leaders of the state unit also started discussing other names. Finally, one person was appointed as the Congress candidate, while before that, he was not even a party member,” he said.
“Leaders of other alliance parties then told me that if you can’t retain even one of the five seats, what is there to discuss about 126 seats in the next election? I then resigned as alliance leader on moral grounds and the Congress candidate lost miserably,” he added.Bora also said that Congress chief Jitendra Singh, who was tasked with taking forward alliance talks ahead of the assembly elections, chaired a meeting with the six leaders on February 9.“I accepted it as it was the party’s decision. I also felt there was a need to form an alliance as the Congress cannot deal with the BJP alone. I felt there was a need to unite the anti-BJP votes,” he said.He added that the next day, Gogoi told him that Rakibul Hussain would be actively involved in the negotiations.“I told him that this was not a decision taken in the meeting. Meanwhile, Nagaon Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi called me and said if Rakibul was there, he would not tolerate it,” Bora claimed.“During this period, Gaurav has publicly stated that I am spreading misinformation about leadership talks. I have spoken to other party leaders including Akhil Gogoi,” he said.“Congress party separated from Hindu society”Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma Claiming that Bora’s resignation marked the Congress’s “separation” from the Hindu community, he was the last recognized Hindu leader of the state unit.“Bupembora was the last recognized Hindu leader of the Congress party,” Sarma said.Sarma claimed that more Congress leaders would switch to the BJP and claimed that disillusioned Muslim leaders might join Rajo Dal.“In the 2031 assembly elections, the BJP’s opposition will be the Raijor Dal and not the Congress,” he claimed.Sarma, who compared his own experience with his own, said Bora’s resignation reflected deeper issues within Congress.“His resignation sends a symbolic message that in the Congress, no one from an ordinary family can prosper. The Congress does not recognize people from an ordinary family. I come from an ordinary middle-class family and the BJP made me the chief minister,” he said.Congress marred by infighting?Assam is not the only state where the Congress is facing internal divisions.In Karnataka, chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy minister DK Shivakumar have publicly displayed tension. In Odisha, Mohammad Mokwem resigned citing organizational issues.
During the Bihar assembly elections, rifts emerged again within the Congress party. Rebel leaders protested after being denied tickets. The party ended up being the weakest link in its coalition, with the lowest strike rate among its major partners.Bora now joins a growing list of leaders who have quit the Congress over clashes with the high command or state-level contests, including Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jitin Prasada, who all quit the party and joined rivals.On the eve of the state’s assembly elections, the Congress party finds itself at a crossroads, grappling not only with the BJP but also with familiar internal frictions that have historically hampered its momentum.
