Assam’s top Muslim leader joins Congress a month before polls

A month ahead of Assam’s Lok Sabha elections, the top minority leader of the state’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday resigned and joined the Congress party. Aminul Haque Laskar became the first minority MP from Assam BJP in 2016.

Mr. Laskar served as Deputy Speaker of the Assam Assembly and was later appointed Chairman of the Assam Minorities Commission. In 2021, he lost to Karim Uddin Barbhuiya of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

The leader told New Delhi TV that he chose to resign because the BJP had “lost its political ideology” in Assam. “I worked in the BJP for 13 years, and the BJP then was very different from what it is now. At that time, the BJP used to talk about change,” he said.

The leader joined the Congress in the presence of Assam in-charge Jitendra Singh Alwar on Wednesday.

Mr Laskar also warned that his exit would affect the ruling party’s credibility among minorities and claimed that the BJP’s ideology was now becoming similar to Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF.

“When I became the MLA of the BJP in 2016, I was a member of the Muslim community in the area but now that I have left, it will damage the credibility of the BJP among Muslims in Assam. The BJP now Working closely with AIUDF in Assam,” he said.

Assam will vote for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in three phases on April 19, April 26 and May 7.