Guwahati, March 18 Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday termed Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi's resignation from the party and subsequent joining of the BJP as unfortunate, and said the senior leader was "upset for personal reasons".
Gogoi also said that he will convey to the central leadership whatever decision Bordoloi's son, who is a Congress candidate for the April 9 assembly polls, takes.
Bordoloi, a Congress member for more than five decades and the chairman of the manifesto committee for the assembly polls, joined the BJP on Wednesday in Delhi. He claimed that he resigned from the Congress on Tuesday as he was facing humiliation in the party and was sidelined after he supported Shashi Tharoor's candidature for the party president's post.
Gogoi told reporters after arriving in Dibrugarh from Delhi that the Congress gave him a ticket in the last Lok Sabha election and fielded his son in the coming assembly elections.
Regarding the candidature of Bordoloi's son Prateek, Gogoi said that whatever decision he takes, "I will convey the same to the party's central leadership. I have sympathy for him and will extend moral support to him''.
Prateek Bordoloi's name was announced for the Margherita constituency in the party's first list.
"It (Bordoloi joining the BJP) is unfortunate. He is upset for personal reasons,” the state Congress chief said, without elaborating.
“Our Central Election Committee meeting will be held today, and most likely the third list of Congress candidates will be released tonight,'' Gogoi said.
The Deputy leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha said that the assembly election will determine the future of Assam.
"The central issue of this election is that the people of the state do not want Himanta Biswa Sarma to continue as chief minister but want relief from him," he said.
The election is not about any single political party, but about Sarma, who prioritises only his own family, Gogoi claimed.
''People from six communities in Assam do not want a leader who opposed granting them tribal status to return as the chief minister. Tea garden workers want a person who pushed the industry towards decline while acquiring gardens in the name of his family members should not lead the state again,'' he claimed.
“In the interest of the Assamese people, we will take every demand of the people seriously and continue to strengthen our party’s work," Gogoi said.
He asserted that every effort would be made to free the people of Assam from Sarma's "intimidation and low-level politics."