Former Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora returns to party after stint with TMC

Former MP Ripun Bora returned to the Congress fold on Sunday after a short-lived stint with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC. The senior politician maintained that remaining with the Trinamool Congress would have led to vote division in Assam. Several top functionaries of state TMC also joined the Congress along with him.

“The people of Assam are fed up with the misrule of BJP government. We will all work together to strengthen the Congress further and expose the ruling alliance’s corruption, communalism before the people…it is the demand of the state and country that BJP needs to be uprooted from power. And Congress is the only party which can do it,” he said.

Bora had been the Assam Congress chief before he resigned from the party to join TMC. He served as the state president of the party till his recent exit. Several top functionaries of state TMC also joined the Congress along with him. It was not immediately clear whether Bora would be assuming a senior role within the party.

Earlier this month the former Assam cabinet minister had claimed that people in the northeastern state were “not willing to accept” TMC as their own and considered it as a “regional party” of West Bengal.

The Congress and TMC are both members of the INDIA bloc but remain un-linked entities in the northeastern state. The two parties had contested Lok Sabha elections separately with the Congress winning three seats. The TMC had failed to open its account.

“On behalf of AICC, I welcome Ripun Bora back into the party. It is a ‘ghar wapsi’ (returning home) for him. We are happy that he has returned without any condition. He is with us as a party member,” said Jitendra Singh — the AICC general secretary in-charge of the state.

He maintained that though Bora may have joined TMC and became its state president, Congress is in his DNA.

(With inputs from agencies)