Former Assam BJP MP Ram Prasad Sarmah to join JDU

GUWAHATI: Former BJP MP from Assam Ram Prasad Sarmah is all set to join the Janata Dal (United).

On Saturday, the neta was in Delhi holding deliberations with senior JD-U leaders. He told this newspaper that he would join the party once the formalities were over.

“I had several other options such as Congress, All India Trinamool Congress and National People’s Party but I took a decision to join the JD-U as it is headed by a man who has a clean image – Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has a clean image,” Sarmah said.

“The JD-U could be a small house but we all will make it big. Many BJP veterans in Assam had built the party in the state brick by brick. It’s sad that I have been forced to leave the house,” the former BJP old guard lamented. 

In March, Sarmah had resigned from the primary membership of the BJP after serving the RSS and VHP for 15 years and the BJP for 29 years.

The lawyer-turned-politician started feeling increasingly cornered within the BJP after he was denied a ticket to contest the last Lok Sabha elections. He had alleged that he was victimized by the new leaders in the party.

"I felt greatly insulted when my name, a sitting MP and the President of Assam Gorkha Sammelan, did not find place in panel sent up by the state BJP committee," Sarmah posted on social media.

Sarmah alleged that "old guards" of the party who had toiled for decades and brought the BJP to power were now "most neglected and ill treated".

Sharma, who belongs to the Gorkha community, was elected to the Lok Sabha the first time in 2014 from the Tezpur Parliamentary constituency which has a sizeable Gorkha population.

His candidature was at stake since his daughter's arrest in connection with the APSC job scam.

(With inputs from PTI, online desk)