Leadership vacuum hurting Congress in Assam as exodus to BJP continues

Experts say the Congress has been losing ground and the latest exodus only goes on to show a lack of foresight on part of the leadership.

Several prominent Congress leaders from Assam have joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra passed through the northeastern state.

Experts say the Congress has been losing ground and the latest exodus only goes on to show a lack of foresight on part of the leadership.

The fact these leaders switched sides within days of Rahul Gandhi's yatra, which is expected to lift the morale of the cadre in the the run up to the Lok Sabha, has also raised the question if the Congress' leader's decision is helping the party.

Subhrangshu Pratim Sarmah, a Guwahati-based research scholar on Northeastern politics, attributed the shift to growing dissatisfaction within a segment of the Assam Congress and said the shift was a long time coming.

Former minister Bismita Gogoi, former president of Indian Youth Congress's Assam unit Angkita Dutta and former deputy speaker of the assembly Dilip Paul joined the BJP at the party headquarters in Guwahati on January 28.

Former president and vice president of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) Dipanka Kumar Nath and Prakash Das also joined the BJP.

Rahul Gandhi’s Assam leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra had several run-ins with the state government. The two sides clashed over permissions for public meetings and the route.

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Gandhi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who left the Congress to join the BJP, also traded barbs, accusing each other of  corruption.

The timing was planned to overshadow Gandhi's Yatra in Assam.

Sarmah said Dutta joined the BJP following a series of events. She was expelled from the Congress 2023 after she accused Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV of harassment.

On April 22, the Assam police registered a case against Srinivas on Dutta's complaint in which she alleged that IYC chief harassed her and discriminated against her.

Sarmah said the Congress had lost considerable ground in Assam, primarily due to continuing leadership vacuum and for lack of foresight.

The Congress is already under fire from its INDIA bloc partners which accuse it of delaying seat-sharing talks, with some even blaming the party's pre-occupation with the yatra for the stalemate.