Guwahati, Nov 21 (IANS): Biswajit Daimary, the founding leader and Rajya Sabha MP of the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), an ally of the ruling BJP in Assam, has resigned from the Upper House and announced his decision to join the saffron party on Sunday.
"I have quit the BPF and on Sunday morning I would join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Along with me, senior leader and party's General Secretary Emmanuel Mosahary would also join the BJP," Daimary told IANS over phone.
The 49-year-old tribal leader, whose Rajya Sabha tenure was scheduled to end in mid 2026, resigned from the BPF on November 11.
In his resignation letter, available with IANS, to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, Daimary said: "I request that my resignation be accepted by you with immediate effect."
Daimary and Mosahary's resignations are big setbacks for the BPF just two weeks before the politically significant elections to the 40 Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) seats, where the two ruling allies -- BPF and BJP -- are fighting against each other in the two-phase polling on December 7 and 10.
The BJP had wrested power from the Congress in Assam in 2016 by becoming the single largest party with 60 MLAs in the 126-member Assembly and formed an alliance with the BPF and the Asom Gana Parishad, which won 14 and 12 seats, respectively. The ruling alliance also has the support of an Independent MLA.
The Hagrama Mohilary-led BPF has been ruling the BTC since its first elections in 2005 after the autonomous tribal constitutional body was constituted in 2003.
The all-important elections to the Assam Assembly are expected to be held in March-April next year.