Rajen Gohain.
Credit: X/@rajengohainbjp
Guwahati: Days after debacle in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) polls, the ruling in BJP in Assam on Thursday received another jolt when Rajen Gohain, a former Union Minister and the saffron party's troch bearer in the state during Vajpayee-Advani tenure, resigned citing "no respect" by the party's present leadership.
The resignation came months ahead of Assembly elections.
The 74-year-old, who joined BJP in 1991, served as the party's state unit president and was elected to Lok Sabha from Nagaon constituency four times between 1999 and 2014, when the saffron party struggled to make a mark in the state politics.
"That was the time when party leadership reposed faith on the workers and showed respect. Now the leadership has changed and so has the party's attitude towards people like us. So finally, today I decided to quit instead of remaining in the party as wastes," a visibly emotional Gohain told reporters soon after he visited the party's state headquarters and submitted his resignation to the state president Dilip Saikia.
Saikia, in fact, worked under Gohain for years before he was elected to Lok Sabha from Mangaldoi constituency in 2019. Gohain, once a firebrand Hindutva leader, was inducted as Union Minister of State for Railways in 2016, during Narendra Modi's first tenure as PM.
However, Gohain's disgruntlement increased after a group of young leaders under present Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma switched from Congress to BJP in 2015.
Anti-Assamese stance
Gohain said he reached out to the party leadership with suggestions to correct the mistakes such as the delimitation exercise, that according to him, divided the influential Ahom community and reduced their political clout in several constituencies.
"Ahoms are the largest indigenous community in Assam and they dominated outcomes in 30 to 40 Assembly constituencies. But the delimitation reduced their political influence. But the party did not pay any heed to my objections and the suggestions," he said.
Gohain belongs to the Ahom community, which ruled Assam for 600 years before annexation to the British in 1826. Assam has 126 Assembly seats. Gohain's resignation came at a time six ethnic communities including the Ahoms intensified agitation for fulfilling the long pending demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
Although Goahin said he is yet to decide his future, sources said he is likely to join Asom Jatiya Parishad, an anti-CAA opposition party, led by Lurinjyoti Gogoi, also an Ahom.
Party officials admitted that Gohain's resignation could affect BJP in central and Upper Assam districts. This came days after BJP lost the BTC polls to Bodoland People's Front, which swept the polls by winning 28 out of 40 seats. BJP managed to win only five seats.