Congress defectors Bhupen Borah, Pradyut Bordoloi get BJP tickets in Assam 2026 poll list

Two senior leaders who quit the Congress party in quick succession have been handed tickets by the Bharatiya Janata Party as it released its candidate list for the 2026 Assam Legislative Assembly elections on March 19.

Bhupen Kumar Borah, a former two-term MLA who served as president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee from 2021 to 2025, has been fielded from Bihpuria in Lakhimpur district — the same seat he held for a decade.

Borah, who spent more than three decades with the Congress, cited a growing sense of neglect and internal conflict as reasons for his exit, alleging that his concerns about the party's functioning in Assam were repeatedly ignored by the leadership.

He also claimed that the Assam unit had effectively been taken over by Rakibul Hussain, sidelining several senior leaders, including himself. He formally joined the BJP in February, with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma — himself a Congress defector — welcoming him with the remark: "We joined the Congress party together. I left sooner."

Pradyut Bordoloi, the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Nagaon, followed just a month later, resigning from Congress on March 17 and joining the BJP the very next day, March 18. He has now been fielded from Dispur, one of Assam's most prominent urban constituencies. Bordoloi, a Congress member for more than five decades, said he had been facing humiliation and isolation within the party for the past two years.

He also pointed to the growing influence of UP leader Imran Masood in Assam Congress affairs as a factor in his decision, saying he was quitting "not only for self-respect but also to work in the larger interest of Assam." By switching parties, he gave up the remaining three and a half years of his parliamentary tenure.

The back-to-back exits have left Congress struggling with organisational stability, with Bordoloi's departure costing the party one of its only three Lok Sabha MPs from the state. Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi sought to play down the damage, saying a disagreement over a single seat was not reason enough to abandon a party, while the Leader of Opposition, Debabrata Saikia, called the moves "very unfortunate."

The two defections fit a pattern that Sarma has openly encouraged. The chief minister has said the BJP's effort to absorb Congress leaders began in 2016 and is now "99 per cent complete," and on Wednesday, he predicted that further crossovers were imminent.

Beyond the high-profile recruits, the BJP's list spans constituencies across Lower, Central, and Upper Assam, including Rangia, Palasbari, Guwahati Central, Nagaon, Mangaldai, Dhemaji, and Tinsukia. Sarma himself will defend Jalukbari, with senior ministers Chandramohan Patowary, Ranjeet Kumar Dass, and Pijush Hazarika also retaining their seats. Several reserved tribal constituencies — among them Tamulpur, Dudhnai, and Dhemaji — are expected to be closely contested.

Assam's 126 assembly seats will go to the polls in a single phase on April 9, with counting of votes on May 4. The BJP, seeking a third consecutive term under Sarma, faces a Congress party that must now regroup after losing two of its most recognisable faces in the space of a month.