Nalbari, Aug 9 (PTI) Former BJP MLA Ashok Sarma on Friday joined Congress along with hundreds of his supporters.
At a joining programme here, the senior BJP leader took the membership of Congress in the presence of its deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, state president Bhupen Kumar Borah, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia along with AICC leaders Prithviraj Sathe and Vikas Upadhyay.
“On this day, the Quit India movement started to get Independence from the British. I chose this day to join the Congress in recognition of the sacrifice made by the party and its leaders,” Sarma said, addressing the huge crowd.
He said it was a tough decision to join the Congress as his family, including all three brothers and two sisters, was associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“My political existence was at stake in the BJP. The party’s arrogance to destroy Congress was also not well accepted by common party workers. After Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the BJP, the downfall started. Because of such an attitude, Congress will form a government again next time,” he claimed.
During the Congress regime in Assam, the society was never divided and it was also not so during former CM Sarbananda Sonowal’s tenure, he added.
“However, we are seeing only Hindu-Muslim politics in the last three years. I do not agree with the politics of division in society,” Sarma said.
Along with him, scores of Nalbari district BJP leaders and workers also joined the Congress.
Borah said, “We are really happy to welcome Sarma into the Congress. We are happy that this joining programme is taking place at the Nalbari Congress office and we are not able to accommodate the supporters. It shows our growing popularity.” Gogoi said Sarma’s joining Congress will create a “tremor” in BJP in lower Assam districts and more leaders will come to the opposition party in coming months.
On August 2, Sarma resigned from the primary membership of the BJP and also quit the post of chairman of Assam Plantation Crops Development Corporation Limited after expressing his dissatisfaction over the functioning of leaders of the party for several months.
He was an MLA from 2016 to 2021 and was considered to have a “good relationship” with Sonowal, the former CM and present Union minister.
Spending several decades in the BJP, soft-spoken Sarma rose from the grassroots level and has considerable clout in Nalbari. He had close links with the RSS too and carried a “clean image” all along.
His difference with party leadership started after he was denied a ticket in the 2021 assembly polls to accommodate former Congress leader and present minister Jayanta Malla Baruah, a close aide of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. PTI TR TR SOM
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