Rangja Khungur Basumatary: The BPF candidate who defected to the BJP

The heated Assembly elections in Assam took an unexpected turn on April 1 as the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) candidate for the Tamulpur constituency, Rangja Khungur Basumatary, also known as Ram Das Basumatary, joined the BJP.

Basumatary had reportedly gone missing for two days and at around midnight on Wednesday, senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had tweeted that he had met the BPF candidate, who would join the saffron party and retire from the election.

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"Official candidate of BPF and so called Congress-led alliance from Tamulpur LAC (legislative assembly constituency), Sri Ram Das Basumatary met me a short while ago. He has expressed his desire to Join @BJP4India and retire from the election," Sarma tweeted.

Basumatary told a local TV channel that he had decided to resign from BPF as the party did not lend any helping hand to him during the campaign.

Basumatary, a new entrant to electoral politics, spent most of his adult life working as a contractor in the Sessapani area of Kumarighat in Tamulpur constituency. “He is rather well-known in Tamulpur. He would take on project to construct roads, deep wells etc.,” The Indian Express reported, quoting a local journalist.

However, while he was associated with the BPF, Basumatary joined the party only recently, and was subsequently chosen among eleven hopefuls to contest from Tamulpur, the report said.

Talking about his defection, Basumatary said: “Elections are not easy and I can’t singularly fight it on my own. That is why I had told them that I had some financial inconveniences even before I took the ticket and I would need help,” according to the report.

The Congress demanded a detailed proble into the defection and publicisation of Baumatary's phone records. It also sought the poll in Tamulpur be cancelled and Sarma be banned for allegedly threatening BPF chief Hagrama Mohilary - though ultimately, he was let go with a short ban on campaigning.

The BPF is an ally of the opposition Congress in Assam, where two out of the slated three phased poll got over on Thursday.

(With PTI inputs)