The Congress party has reacted with sharp criticism following the resignation of senior Assam leader and Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, March 18, 2026.
Speaking from New Delhi, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra termed the exit “unfortunate” and suggested that internal friction over ticket allocation for the upcoming Assam Assembly elections might have triggered the move.
However, she emphasized that “ideology also matters,” implying that Bordoloi’s shift to the BJP was a compromise of his long-held political principles.
Bordoloi, who had been with the Congress for nearly three decades and served as the chairman of the party’s manifesto committee, submitted a brief resignation to Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday night. He later cited “persistent humiliation” and “isolation” within the party as his primary reasons for leaving, specifically noting that he had been sidelined since supporting Shashi Tharoor in the 2022 Congress presidential election.
He also expressed deep hurt over the party’s decision to nominate certain candidates against his advice, alleging that his concerns regarding their backgrounds were dismissed by state leadership, including APCC chief Gaurav Gogoi.
The Congress has responded to the defection by accusing the BJP of “poaching” and using “pressure tactics” to weaken the opposition ahead of the April polls.
MP Manickam Tagore called the move a “moral betrayal,” stating that a leader who switches sides in the heat of a “battlefield” cannot escape the judgment of the people.
The exit is a significant blow to the Assam Congress, which recently lost its state president Bhupen Borah to the BJP. As Bordoloi prepares to potentially contest the Dispur assembly seat for his new party, the fate of his son, Prateek Bordoloi—currently a Congress candidate for the Margherita seat—remains a subject of intense political speculation.
The loss of a seasoned leader like Bordoloi, who carried deep roots in the state’s political fabric, leaves the Congress struggling to maintain its narrative of unity in Assam.
While the party frames his exit as an act of opportunism fueled by the BJP’s “poaching” machinery, the internal grievances Bordoloi aired suggest deeper fissures within the Congress’s state unit.
With the first phase of voting set for April 9, the party must now act quickly to prevent further erosion of its ranks before the state heads to the polls.
