Assam Congress chief: ‘Some people will leave Congress, join BJP and it will be a temporary setback .. it is to suppress main issues’

In a span of just two weeks, the Assam Congress has seen two of its three working presidents – Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha and Rana Goswami – and one of its MLAs, Basanta Das, jump ship. While Das and Purkayastha declared their support to the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government, Goswami formally joined the BJP. CM Sarma has claimed that all the Congress MLAs barring a few Muslim legislators have been in touch with him and would join the BJP before the 2026 Assembly elections. With the pressure piling on the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah spoke to The Indian Express at length about the situation and his party’s plans to deal with it. Excerpts:

The developments of the last few weeks paint a picture of extreme disarray within the Assam Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. What is your assessment?

Since 2014, the core commitments the BJP made to the people of Assam included ST status for six communities, increasing tea garden worker wages, flood-free Assam, unemployment-free Assam, corruption-free Assam, Brahmaputra dredging, building an express highway. There was a big slogan “BJP ahibo, bideshi jabo (BJP will come, foreigners will go)”. Assam Accord Clause 5 and 6 were to be implemented within 100 days. There was a promise that the drinking water and artificial flooding problem in Guwahati city would be solved within 100 days… BJP hasn’t been able to fulfil any of these tall promises. The Congress is the only party which is raising these issues at different times. And the Congress is the alternative to the BJP for the people of Assam.

That’s why they (BJP) have started a psychological war. So that people develop a trust deficit that even though Congress is saying such