A day after four-times Congress MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi announced his plans to join the BJP, on Saturday Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma appealed to all opposition MLAs to join the ruling party.
The lone Congress member of parliament from the Sarma tea community was answering a question on Kurmi, who had left the old party and resigned from the Assam Legislative Assembly.
The MLA from Mariani constituency in Upper Assam had also announced that he would join the BJP on Monday in the presence of the Chief Minister.
The CM said: “What will they do in the opposition benches for five years? I would rather say that they should join us. Since we are working for the welfare of the people beyond caste, religion and creed, I appeal to them (opposition members) to join us and work together for the public.”
Leaving the party on Friday, Karami attacked the Congress leadership, accusing the organization of being “extremely weak” because leaders “do not listen to the voices of lower-level workers”.
The MLA of the tea tribe community, who played a decisive role in the Upper Assam polls, said the results of the Assembly elections were a testament to the fact that the party had “failed in five states” where elections were held in March and April.
He said, “It seems that the party leadership is not willing to give a chance to the people of tea tribe or other backward classes but it is seen that people of a particular religious class are given priority in the party.”
Opposition leader in the assembly Debabrata Saikia termed Kurimi’s exit as a loss for the party.
Another senior Congress leader, Juri Sharma Bordoloi, who was the president of the Guwahati City District Congress and a former national official of the Mahila Congress, also resigned from the party on Friday.
Bordoloi claimed that more than 100 supporters had decided to leave the party with her.
There is speculation that a few more Congress leaders, including an MLA, will leave the party and join the BJP in the next few days.
After Kurmi’s resignation, the strength of the Congress in Assam’s 126-member assembly has shrunk to 28. The BJP currently has 60 MLAs, while its ally AGP has nine and the UPPL has five.
The Congress, which has been in power in Assam three times in a row since 2001, has been in opposition since 2016, when the BJP-led coalition formed the government for the first time.
