10,000 Congressmen joined the BJP in a week, says Assam minister

Guwahati : Assam minister, Pijush Hazarika, on Monday asserted that the Congress party was in a very bad situation in the state and several party leaders have been rallying behind the BJP to switch sides.

While attending a BJP joining event where Congress party workers were inducted, the minister said, “Daily people from the Congress are calling us with a request to join our party. I have been travelling across the state for the last one week and I have attended a few political programmes where at least 10,000 leaders and workers from the Congress have joined the BJP.”

He also claimed that after the Lok Sabha polls get over, the fate of the Congress party would be uncertain. “Once the Lok Sabha elections are over in the country, the situation of the Congress will worsen,” Hazarika alleged.

Notably, in a setback to the Congress party in Assam, six-time MLA and former minister Bharat Chandra Narah resigned from the party on Monday after his wife Ranee Narah was denied a ticket for the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll.

The Naoboicha MLA sent his resignation letter to Congress President, Mallikarjun Kharge. Narah wrote: “I do hereby resign from the Indian National Congress with immediate effect.”

Bharat Narah was elected to the state Assembly six times on a Congress ticket. He consecutively won Dhakuakhana constituency from 1985 to 2011, and was also a Cabinet Minister in the state.

In 2021, he moved to Naoboicha seat in Lakhimpur District, and was again elected on a Congress ticket. Meanwhile, Ranee Narah was a strong contender for the ticket in Lakhimpur seat in Assam this time. She won this Lok Sabha constituency thrice and was once elected to Rajya Sabha as well.

The Congress leader also served as a Union Minister in the Manmohan Singh-led government at the Centre. However, the Congress this time picked Uday Shankar Hazarika instead of Ranee Narah to contest from the Lakhimpur seat. He switched from the BJP in December last year.