Guwahati, February 16 Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday that the doors of the BJP were open for Bhupen Borah, hours after the former state Congress chief resigned from the party.
Sarma also said that if Borah joins the BJP, he would try to get him elected from a “safe seat”.
Borah sent his resignation letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge earlier in the day, dealing a blow to the party ahead of the Assam assembly polls.
In the letter, he claimed that he was being "ignored" by the party leadership and not being accorded his due in the state unit.
Borah was the president of the Assam Congress unit from 2021 to 2025, and was replaced by Gaurav Gogoi last year. He has been a two-time legislator in Assam.
Sarma said Borah was the “last Hindu leader” in the Congress without a family background – father or mother not occupying a ministerial post or being an MLA.
"His resignation carries the symbolic message that in the Congress, no one from a normal family can prosper. Congress does not give recognition to people from ordinary families, but I hail from an ordinary middle class family and the BJP has made me a chief minister. We stay opposite to the politics of blue blood," he told reporters here outside the assembly.
Sarma said he will go to Borah's residence tomorrow evening, and discuss his plans for the future.
"Borah has 'not contacted me or the BJP till now and at present, we are not in direct or indirect touch'," the CM said.
"If he wants to join the BJP, we will welcome him, but even if he does not want to do so, we extend our best wishes to him," Sarma said.