Problems In Assam Congress That Pradyut Bordoloi's Exit Wound Revealed

The Assam campaign had barely settled into rhythm when the late-evening tremor arrived: Pradyut Bordoloi, former Congress MP, crossed over to the BJP just before the ruling party firmed up its candidate list. By dawn, he was the new face for Dispur, the state's most scrutinised assembly seat.

It's a familiar script in Assam's election cycles, but Bordoloi's version carried the quiet burn of a long, internal quarrel finally made public.

Bordoloi said the switch wasn't impulsive. "Not an overnight decision," he told NDTV.

The rupture began with a vote in the Congress presidential election when he backed Shashi Tharoor. The Assam leader said everything changed after that.

Senior, frontline leaders in Delhi remained cordial, Mallikarjun Kharge in particular, Bordoloi said. But the "second line", or the layer that actually controls access, messaging and relevance, began freezing him out. The humiliations came in small, repeated hits, he said, adding none were dramatic on their own but were enough to erode a career when stacked.

"I cannot remain in a party like a vegetable," he said.

Inside the Assam Congress, he described another party running on jugalbandi. Gaurav Gogoi and Rakibul Hussain are calling the shots, while everyone else has been reduced to bystanders, Bordoloi said.

He said that though he spent decades inside the party's decision-making circle, the invitations stopped and information dried up. Inputs were neither sought nor tolerated, he added. Trust deficit, insularity, and a senior leadership that doesn't know what to do with its own seniors are major problems, Bordoloi said.

When the BJP reached out, it wasn't the organisational heft that convinced him, Bordoloi said. He found dignity, self-respect and protection. The former Congress leader said he didn't contact Rahul Gandhi before leaving, in a deliberate omission signalling the distance had grown too wide to bridge.

The move carried a personal cost. Bordoloi said his son had a difficult time processing it. Then he told his son to make his own political choices, not follow his father's. His son, Prateek, who was to make his electoral debut from Bordoloi's traditional Margherita seat, later withdrew his candidature. Prateek has said he will remain in the Congress, and is working closely with Gaurav Gogoi.