Another Setback For Congress As Rana Goswami Quits As Working President In Assam

A media report suggests that Assam Congress senior leader Rana Goswami, who resigned as organisational in-charge of Upper Assam, is expected to join the BJP on March 4.

Image used for representational purposes only.

Senior Congress leader Rana Goswami on Wednesday tendered his resignation as the working President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and as an active member of the Indian National Congress.

Rana Goswami resigns as the working president of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and a member of the party. pic.twitter.com/xKucfrb2Pq

— ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2024

Assam Congress senior leader Rana Goswami, who resigned as organisational in-charge of Upper Assam, is expected to join the BJP on March 4, India TodayNE reported citing sources.

According to the report, Rana Goswami plans to meet with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP National President JP Nadda on February 28.

"There is a chance that Rana Goswami will join the BJP on March 4 at approximately 11.29 a.m. It is expected that he will join on a specific day only after consulting the 'lagna' and auspicious time for the joining date," a source told India TodayNE.

The report also said that General Secretary of AICC KC Venugopal contacted Goswami, but he didn't respond.

In his resignation letter which he forwarded to APCC chief Bhupen Borah, Goswami listed 'several political reasons' behind his decision.

"I beg to state that unfortunately, I am tendering my resignation as the organisational in-charge of Upper Assam including the districts Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Sonitpur, and Biswanath due to various political reasons", Goswami said in his letter to Borah.

On February 14, two Congress MLAs, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, the working president, and Basanta Das, a minister in Tarun Gogoi's government, announced that they would 'support the government' without leaving the grand old party.

Both MLAs joined a group of two other Congress MLAs, Sashi Kanta Das and former minister Siddique Ahmed, who had also 'joined the government' but now serve as legislators for the opposition party.

In response to Rana Goswami's resignation, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) chief Bhupen Kumar Borah told ABP Live, “The BJP has taken some of our members to their party and are trying to make more Congressmen join the saffron party camp, but it was seen in the past that some senior members of the Congress, who joined the BJP, were ignored and neglected."

"They did not even get a seat to sit on the dais of BJP meetings and programmes, and I hope that a senior leader like Rana Goswami does not face the same fate,” he added further. 

Earlier in an X post, Borah had accused State’s CM Himanta Biswa Sarma of becoming ”acrimonious toward him out of fear”.

ACRIMONY IS A SIGN OF FEAR
I am certain that if there is one person in Assam that @HimantaBiswa truly fears, it is me. Why? Because his acrimonious behaviour towards me and my family betrays his innermost fears.

HBS doesn't like followers, he likes slaves. Just see how he made… pic.twitter.com/EEVgeS3XdC

— Bhupen kumar Borah (@BhupenKBorah) February 27, 2024