Confession of a Congress Leader: I had to fight internally to save my presidentship throughout my tenure

                                                                                                                                                      Dibya Kamal Bordoloi

The Congress high command recently changed the state president after a humiliating defeat in the 2021 assembly election in Assam.

Guwahati: Ever since the Congress party is ousted from power in 2016 in Assam for countless corruption and misrule, the party has been broken because of its internal conflict.

Lobby politics divided Congress into many folds, which led the party to another miserable defeat in the 2021 Assam assembly election. None other than the outgoing Pradesh President of Congress party in Assam said this. Congress MP and outgoing state president Ripun Bora, on Wednesday (August 4), confessed in a party meeting that he had to fight to save his presidentship throughout his tenure.

In a function held in Guwahati to hand over charge to the new State President Bhupen Bora, the outgoing president said, “History shouldn’t repeat this time. In my tenure as state president, I had to only fight within the party to save my president ship. As a party president, I had to fight against our opponent BJP, but most of the time I was busy fighting internally to save my chair (president post).”

The confession of Bora reveals the internal fighting within the party, which is now reduced merely to a minority voter based party. The Congress high command recently changed the state president after a humiliating defeat in the 2021 assembly election in Assam. Newly elected state president Bhupen Bora and three Executive presidents took charge on Wednesday in a ceremony held in Guwahati.

Recently two Congress MLAs from upper Assam Sushanta Borgohain and Rupjyoti Kurmi and several state leaders had left the party and joined the ruling BJP. Most of the rebel leaders accused the congress party in Assam has become a minority voters based party and has lost its relevance amongst the indigenous voters.

It should be mentioned that the Congress party has only 9 Hindu Assamese MLAs in Assam now, after the recent resignation of two MLAs from upper Assam. The alliance of Congress with a party like AIUDF and too much appeasement of minority voters has diminished the party's relevance amongst the Assamese, tribal and tea worker voters. This is why Congress won only a handful of seats in upper Assam in the 2021 election.