'Congress nurtured him, BJP lured him': Rakibul Hussain slams Pradyut Bordoloi's defection

Congress MP Rakibul Hussain has hit out at Pradyut Bordoloi, the Nagaon legislator who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on March 18, saying the party had built him from the ground up — and that his defection raised serious questions about loyalty and memory.

 

"Earlier, he did not have a strong base in Nagaon — we brought him in and helped him become an MP," Hussain said.

 

Bordoloi joined the BJP in Delhi on Wednesday in the presence of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and state party president Dilip Saikia, a day after resigning from Congress. His departure leaves the party with just two of its three sitting MPs from Assam.

 

For Hussain, the sting was personal. He recalled that Bordoloi had, not long ago, been one of the most vocal critics of Sarma within the Congress ranks — more forceful, he said, than even himself.

 

"His language was more forceful than mine," Hussain said. "He used to criticise Himanta Biswa Sarma even more strongly than I did."

 

Bordoloi had served as chairman of the Congress Manifesto Committee and had prepared a detailed chargesheet against the Assam government — a document released publicly by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — targeting the ruling dispensation on corruption, unemployment, tribal dignity, and schemes including PM Sampada and Jal Jeevan Mission.

 

"That document was his own work and strongly targeted the government," Hussain said. "But now, he appears to be siding with Himanta Biswa Sarma — which raises serious questions."

 

Hussain also pointed to what he described as a debt Bordoloi owed to the party. When Bordoloi lost the election in Margherita in Tinsukia district, he was handed another opportunity at someone else's expense, Hussain noted. "This should not be forgotten."

 

Priyanka Gandhi had earlier offered a more measured explanation for the defection, saying Bordoloi had been unhappy with ticket distribution. "This was unfortunate," she said.

 

Hussain was less diplomatic. "Many deserving people did not receive tickets, but did they leave Congress? No," he said, adding, "The Congress party nurtured and built all of us."

 

Bordoloi's exit is the second high-profile defection from Assam's Congress in under a month. Former state Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah also crossed over to the BJP recently, compounding concerns within the party about a steady hollowing out of its leadership ahead of the polls.

 

"Today, those who are leaving the party should remember that the positions they hold — MP, former minister, former MLA — were all given to them by Congress," Hussain said.