New Delhi [India], March 18 : Congress in-charge for Assam, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, on Wednesday said that the resignation of former Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi will not cause any harm to the party and that his place will be filled by young leaders joining Congress.
"It is unfortunate that Pradyut Bordoloi has resigned. But this will not harm the Congress party. His place will be filled by young leaders who are joining the party. There is no doubt that the position Bordoloi ji achieved was due to Congress. Only he can tell why he has joined the BJP. These could be tall leaders, but the party's campaign is run by the party workers on the ground level. We will try to decide on the remaining 40 tickets today," he said.
Earlier in the day, Bordoloi formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Assam BJP President Dilip Saikia.
After officially joining the BJP ranks today, Bordoloi said his decision to resign from Congress was driven by "persistent internal humiliation" and a lack of support from the party leadership.
Referring to a specific Assam Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting, Pradyut Bordoloi said he felt hurt after Imran Masood dismissed his allegations against a candidate whom he accused of running a criminal nexus, as "fabricated".
Masood, who represents Saharanpur in the Lok Sabha, is a part of Congress's screening committee for the upcoming Assam elections.
Speaking to ANI, Bordoloi explained his departure, "There is no one reason. I was feeling suffocated, and I was being humiliated".
"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. Imran 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," said Bordoloi.
Bordoloi's resignation comes a month after former Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah joined the BJP, who served in the Congress for three decades.
Elections in Assam for all 126 Assembly constituencies will be held in a single phase on April 9, while the counting of votes is scheduled for May 4, the Election Commission of India announced on Sunday.
Assam will witness a fight between the incumbent BJP-led NDA government and Congress for the 126-seat assembly. The BJP government, led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, will look to secure a third consecutive term, while the Congress aims to defeat the ruling party to return to power.