Former Assam minister Bora quits Congress, joins TMC

Bora’s move to the Trinamool Congress follows that of Sushmita Dev, who joined Mamata Banerjee’s party in August last year.

Bora, who met TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at his office around 3pm, joined the ruling party in West Bengal after a brief meeting.

“From today I have started my new political journey!” Bora tweeted on Sunday evening, sharing his resignation letter, addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

A tweet from the official Trinamool Congress handle said: “Delighted to welcome Shri@ripunbora, Former Minister of Panchayat & Rural Development, Minister of Education in Assam, former Rajya Sabha MP & former President of Assam Pradesh Congress committee! He joined us today in the presence of Shri @abhishekaitc (sic).”

In the recent Rajya Sabha election in Assam, Bora, who was the joint Opposition candidate, had failed to retain his seat.

Considering the Opposition had the number, Bora’s loss was controversial and led to a war of words between the Opposition parties (Congress and AIUDF), each blaming the other of “cross voting”.

In his resignation letter, Bora alleged that there was “infighting” within the Congress for “vested interests”.

“Instead of fighting aggressively and unitedly to prevent BJP at this critical juncture of the country, the leaders of this grand old Congress party at different levels are fighting each other for their vested interest,” Bora wrote.

He also alleged that it was an “open secret” that a section of senior leaders from the Assam Congress had been “maintaining secret understanding with the BJP government mainly with the Chief Minister”.