Ex-Assam Trinamool chief Ripun Bora set to join Congress today

Guwahati : Ripun Bora, who resigned from the Trinamool Congress after questioning Mamata Banerjee's leadership over the party’s expansion plans in Assam, is set to join Congress on Sunday.

A senior party leader of the Congress party told IANS, “Ripun Bora will join our party during a programme in the Charaideo district. The in-charge of Assam from the All India Congress Committee (AICC) will be present. Moreover, state president Bhupen Borah and other senior leaders will also attend the programme.”

Bora left the Congress party around three years ago following his defeat in the Rajya Sabha polls. It was alleged that some of the Congress leaders cross-voted against him in the election. He subsequently joined Trinamool Congress and was made the state president of the party.

However, Ripun Bora quit his post and primary membership of the Trinamool Congress the previous week.

In his resignation letter addressed to Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee, Bora expressed his displeasure over the functioning of Trinamool Congress and said, “Assam TMC has great potential, but several recurring issues have hindered our progress, including the perception of TMC as a regional party of West Bengal. To counter this perception, we made several suggestions, such as the need for an Assamese leader at the national level, declaring the residence of Bharat Ratna Dr Bhupen Hazarika at Tollygunge as a heritage site, and converting the Madhupur Satra at Cooch Behar (the place from where Assam's greatest social reformer Mahapurush Sankar Dev started the Vaishnavite movement) into a cultural hub."

The former Rajya Sabha MP also claimed that he has failed to secure an appointment with Abhishek Banerjee and the West Bengal Chief Minister in the last one and half years to discuss TMC’s prospects in Assam.

“Despite my repeated attempts over the past year and a half to secure an appointment with you and our Chief Mamata Didi to address these concerns, I have been unsuccessful,” he wrote in the letter.

Bora further stated that the people of Assam are not ready to accept a regional party from another state unless it gives immense effort in gaining the confidence of voters.

“In light of these challenges and the lack of an adequate resolution, I feel compelled to make a difficult decision and have decided myself to dissociate myself from TMC,” he added.