A former AASU president Dipanka Kumar Nath, a prominent face of the anti-CAA movement in Assam and an advocate of regionalism, joined the ruling BJP on Sunday, just months ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Nath, who was the influential student organisation (AASU)’s president from 2015 to 2022, joined the BJP along with former Congress MLA and minister Bismita Gogoi and Angkita Dutta, former state Youth Congress president, at the state BJP headquarters here in the presence of state unit president B Kalita and several party MLAs.

A former ASSU vice-president and adviser Prakash Das also joined the saffron party.

Nath said several steps taken during the BJP-led regime such as the recent delimitation of constituencies in a way that would secure the interest of the indigenous communities, freeing of Satra land from encroachers and providing one lakh jobs, had attracted him towards the BJP since these were issues the AASU had been pursuing for years.

However, present and former AASU leaders have accused Nath of letting down both the student body as well as the people of Assam who had participated in the anti-CAA movement spearheaded by him and Lurinjoyoti Gogoi, former AASU general secretary and currently the president of the regional party — Assam Jatiya Parishad.

“He (Nath) led the anti-CAA movement. He used to be an advocate of regionalism for 30 years and now he has joined the ruling BJP which passed the CAA, a law detrimental to Assam. He has betrayed both the AASU and the people of Assam who want safeguard from influx,” an AASU leader said.

Bismita Gogoi, a one-time MLA-minister from Khumtai constituency in Upper Assam, had lost the last two elections. With incumbent Khumatai MLA Mrinal Saikia well-entrenched and her political career going nowhere, she decided to join the BJP, a Khumtai constituency resident said.

“She was hardly involved in Congress activities for some time now and there was speculation she would join the BJP in 2022,” he said.

On her part, Bismita said that she joined the BJP because the Congress had lost its way and she was drawn by the development push of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. She also alleged that women were not safe in the Congress.

Angkita Dutta, daughter of former state president Anjan Dutta, had lost back-to-back Assembly polls and her constituency Amguri was struck out during last year’s delimitation exercise. Her ties with the party leadership also nosedived after she filed a case last year accusing Youth Congress president B.V. Srinivas of harassing her. She was later expelled from the party for six years, a move that all but sealed her fate.