Bhupen Borah on Congress exit: 'No discussion on my concerns, Rahul Gandhi recalled old days’

Bhupen Borah, who quit the Congress ahead of the coming state elections, is expected to join the BJP on February 22

• Bhupen Borah says Congress didn't discuss his resignation reasons
• He alleges Behali bypoll ticket was given without his knowledge
• Borah says Congress ruined his dignity and self-respect.

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Former Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah said after he resigned from his post, the party leadership did not discuss the reasons behind his decision with him but spoke about “emotional things”.

“Rahul Gandhi told me things like how he had gone to the hospital when my father had passed away, reminiscing about meetings, and how I had got election tickets 5 times,” Borah told Indian Express.

He also said when he first became the Assam Congress president, he shared a brotherly relationship with party colleague Gaurav Gogoi.

“After the 2024 Lok Sabha election results, everything suddenly changed… Rakibul Hussain began gathering signatures from MLAs that Gaurav Gogoi should be made the state president, and many complaints were raised against me,” said Borah.

He also told IE how Gaurav Gogoi, Rakibul Hussain, and Jitendra Singh together gave the 2024 Behali by-elections ticket to a land broker without his knowledge. “These announcements were made from Delhi, and I only found out from the TV and papers one morning that the Behali ticket had been given to that person…” he said.

Borah also said after he submitted his resignation, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma came to visit him.

According to Borah, he spent over two decades with the CM when the latter was part of the Congress.

“We had joined on the same day; we had both become GS in the Youth Congress on the same day. The person who has spoken the most against him, the person who has attacked him politically the most, is me. And the person who has suffered the most under BJP rule, from my family to me being beaten on the highway, is me. But it is about survival of the fittest in politics,” he told IE.

Speaking about whether he would join the BJP, Borah said Gogoi made his views clear, and the CM wanted him to join his party. “In that case, what is the option for me? It is because of ideology that I spent 32 years in the Congress. Today, my dignity and my self-respect have been completely destroyed. I think if I had stayed for a little longer, the Congress itself would have removed me,” he said.