BJP’s Pradyut Bordoloi, who quit Congress on election eve, wins Dispur seat by nearly 50,000 votes

Bordoloi, a 2-time MP from Nagaon in Assam & minister in Tarun Gogoi government, resigned from Congress party and joined the BJP days before elections in Assam.

Pradyut Bordoloi during an an election meeting in Guwahati. | ANI

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Pradyut Bordoloi has won the Dispur assembly seat, defeating Assam Mahila Congress president Mira Borthakur Goswami by nearly 50,000 votes, according to the Election Commission data.

Bordoloi, a two-time parliamentarian from Nagaon in Assam and a minister in the Tarun Gogoi government, resigned from the Congress party and joined the BJP days before the Assam elections. The BJP fielded him from Dispur, a general constituency in Assam’s Kamrup Metro district.

According to the Election Commisison data, Bordoloi got 1,03,337 votes, while Goswami managed to get 53,670 votes.

Bordoloi was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from Margherita in a byelection in 1998 and was re-elected in 2001, 2006, and 2011. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and again in 2024 on a Congress ticket. The BJP fielded Bordoloi from Dispur constituency instead of Atul Bora, who has represented it for five terms.

The Lok Sabha member from Nagaon had accused the Congress leadership of sidelining him and had also targeted Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi.

Bordoloi, once considered close to former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, had written a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, saying that he was tendering his resignation from all party posts with an overwhelming sense of sadness. His exit led to Congress losing one of its three Lok Sabha MPs from Assam.

Bordoloi in the past has represented Margherita constituency in Assam for four terms from 1998 to 2016. He has also served as a minister in the Assam government between 2001 and 2015.

The Bordoloi exit was as a major shock for the Congress as it came barely a month after former Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah resigned from the party and switched to the BJP last month. Borah had also raised issues over having differences with the state leadership while raising questions over Gogoi’s functioning.

Bordoloi’s decision to quit the Congress and join the BJP had impacted his son Prateek too who decided not to contest as a nominee of the Congress from the Margherita Assembly constituency. He had written a letter to Kharge, informing him of the decision while maintaining that he would remain a party member.

(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)