Day After Quitting Congress, Assam MP Pradyut Bordoloi Crosses Over To BJP

A day after quitting Congress, Assam Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi on Wednesday crossed over to the rival BJP, barely weeks ahead of the assembly elections in the state.

Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said the new recruit from the Congress, who was the chairman of the Congress manifesto committee for the Assembly polls, will "strengthen our party".

"Today the sitting MP has joined BJP, State president has welcomed him. He is two-time MP and two-time cabinet minister under the Congress government," Himanta Sarma said, adding the joining was approved by the party's national president. 

Asked if the new member will fight the elections, Sarma said the Assam state unit will recommend the central leadership that he should fight the state election.

"We want to bring all the good Congress leaders who are currently there into the BJP," Sarma added.

Bordoloi's resignation comes a month after former Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah joined the BJP, who served in the Congress for three decades.

Bordoloi's son Prateek is a Congress candidate from Margherita seat for the state polls due on April 9.

In the one-line resignation letter addressed to Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the MP said, "With an overwhelming sense of sadness today, I hereby tender my resignation from all posts, privileges and the primary membership of the Indian National Congress." 

The Congress has three Lok Sabha MPs from Assam -- state president Gogoi (from Jorhat), Bordoloi and Rakibul Hussain (Dhubri).

Another senior Assam Congress leader and a close aide of Bordoloi, Nabajyoti Talukdar, also resigned from the party earlier on Tuesday.

A ticket contender from the Guwahati Central seat, Talukdar resigned after another member was named for the seat, a party source said.

Bordoloi had recently sent a letter, stating that he could resign from the party if incumbent Lahorighat MLA Asif Mohammad Nazar was renominated for the Assembly polls.

The MP said in the letter that Nazar's close aide Emdadul Islam was involved in an attack on Bordoloi and other party leaders in April 2025, and was also charge-sheeted by the police in the case.

He also claimed that Gaurav Gogoi had personally met Islam earlier this year at his residence. Lahorighat comes under the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency.