india

Updated: Aug 11, 2019 15:23 IST

Two days after former Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Bhubaneswar Kalita joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi, two more Congress leaders from Assam joined the party in Guwahati on Sunday.

Former minister Gautam Roy and ex-Rajya Sabha MP Santiuse Kujur, who had quit the Congress on Saturday, became members of BJP on Sunday in presence of state unit chief Ranjit Kumar Das and senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at the BJP state office in Guwahati.

Another Congress leader, Hiranya Bhuyan, president of Assam Pradesh Youth Congress and the party candidate from Tezpur in the 2016 assembly election, also joined BJP along with Roy and Kujur.

“I welcome all three leaders to the party and hope in coming days they will follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘sabka, saath, sabka vikas aur sabka vishwas’,” said Ranjit Das.

Roy, a six-time MLA from Katlichera seat in Hailakandi district of Assam, and had held several important ministries in previous Congress regimes, is popular in the Barak Valley.

The Congress had suspended him in June this year after videos of him celebrating BJP’s victory in the last Lok Sabha polls emerged. He was expelled from the party on Saturday.

“There is no leadership in Congress and I was frustrated. I want to serve the public by joining a party which is working for the people,” Roy had said on Saturday indicating the possibility of his joining BJP.

Kujur, who belongs to the tea-tribe community, had represented Congress in Rajya Sabha till recently, said he joined BJP as an ordinary worker.

“Roy and Kujur’s joining BJP will give our party strength as they are leaders with mass appeal. It will also boost our prospects for the 2021 assembly polls,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

On Saturday, there were reports that former Congress chief minister of Meghalaya Mukul Sangma and another Congress leader from Assam, former union minister Pawan Singh Ghatowar would also join the BJP soon. Sangma has since denied any such possibility.

There are also reports that two more Congress leaders from Assam—former minister Bharat Narah and his wife Rajya Sabha MP Ranee Narah—are also expected to join BJP soon.

“Those who have joined BJP have skeletons in their cupboards. These people needed shelter and protection and BJP forced and cajoled them into joining their party. I would say it’s good riddance for us,” said Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP from Nagaon, Pradyut Bordoloi.