GUWAHATI
More than 150 Congress and All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) workers joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Guwahati on January 28.
They include former minister Bismita Gogoi, daughter of former Assembly Speaker Jiba Kanta Gogoi, Angkita Dutta, daughter of former Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Anjan Dutta, and former AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath.
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They donned saffron at the Assam BJP headquarters in the presence of State BJP president Bhabesh Kalita and Ministers Pijush Hazarika and Jayanta Malla Baruah.
The defections are taking place days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi travelled through Assam for the Manipur-to-Gujarat Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
“I have to admit Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Bus Nyay Yatra has created a huge impact in Assam. Over 150 leaders from @INCAssam and AASU are joining @BJP4Assam today. Good decision by @angkitadutta, @bismita_gogoi, @dipankakumar and others,” Mr. Hazarika wrote on X.
Ms. Gogoi said she switched political colours because women are no longer safe in Congress.
“Even my blouse became a topic of discussion within the Congress. I cannot take names but a Congress leader said I would join the BJP because my blouse sported a lotus. There is no point in staying with a party that does not respect women,” she said.
She praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for their development initiatives. Ms. Dutta, who was expelled in 2023 after she accused Youth Congress national president Srinivas B.V. of sexual harassment, said the ideology of Congress has been reduced to rebranding Rahul Gandhi.
“Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra are parts of that endeavour,” she said, adding that the trigger for leaving Congress was when Mr. Gandhi ignored her plea for justice when his Yatra passed through her hometown Amguri in eastern Assam.
Mr. Nath was at the forefront of the intense protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA in 2019. “I have to abide by the party’s position on the CAA,” he said before joining the BJP.
