Guwahati, March 5 Three Congress MLAs – Kamalakhya De Purakayastha, Sashikanta Das, and Basanta Das – joined the ruling BJP in Assam on Thursday, along with two others, ahead of the assembly elections.
All of them were inducted into the party by state BJP president Dilip Saikia in the presence of Union minister Pabitra Margherita at a function here.
This development comes shortly after former Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah joined the saffron party.
Elections to the 126-member Assam assembly are likely to be held in April.
Purakayastha represents Karimganj (North), while Sashikanta and Basanta are sitting MLAs from the Raha and Mangaldoi (SC) constituencies, respectively.
The two others who joined the BJP are former Congress joint secretary Parsha Bob Kalita and former Trinamool Congress general secretary Kangkan Nath.
The three MLAs, reportedly close to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, had openly supported the BJP for the past few years, with Sasikanta Das announcing his support to the ruling party's policies in 2021.
The Congress had suffered a setback, with Borah joining the BJP on February 22, while two other MLAs Abdul Rashid Mondal and Sherman Ali Ahmed switched over to the Raijor Dal last month.
Both Mondal and Ahmed are three-time legislators from Goalpara (West) and Baghbar, respectively.
