Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday openly invited former state Congress president Bhupen Borah to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, just hours after Borah resigned from the Indian National Congress ahead of crucial assembly elections in Assam. Sarma went a step further by saying he would personally visit Borah’s residence to discuss his political future and even hinted at helping him contest from a “safe seat” if he switched sides. The move clearly signals BJP’s aggressive strategy to absorb senior opposition leaders as elections approach.
Borah, in his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, accused the party leadership of sidelining him and ignoring his contributions, calling it a system where ordinary leaders without political family backgrounds are denied growth. Sarma seized on this narrative, claiming Congress has become a party dominated by political dynasties while BJP promotes leaders from middle-class and non-elite families — including himself. He described Borah as the “last Hindu leader” in Congress without a powerful political lineage, framing the resignation as symbolic of what he called Congress’s culture of appeasement and internal favoritism.
The Assam CM also made sharp political predictions, claiming several senior Congress figures would either lose elections or eventually move toward BJP in the coming years, portraying Congress as a party in slow collapse. While Borah has not yet contacted BJP formally, Sarma stressed that the doors remain wide open and that the ruling party would welcome him warmly if he chose to join. The message is blunt and strategic: BJP is positioning itself as the natural destination for disillusioned Congress leaders, while painting the opposition as fractured, elitist, and politically sinking just before a major electoral battle.
