The Opposition Congress lacks the seriousness and the strategy required to take on the ruling BJP in the state, according to Kamal Kumar Medhi, who quit the Assam PCC on Monday.

In his resignation letter to PCC president Ripun Bora, Medhi, who was heading the state unit’s RTI department and was also one of its most visible spokespersons, cited “various political reasons” to leave the party.

Medhi’s departure comes a day after the result of the Bodoland Territorial Council threw up a hung house with the Congress putting up another disappointing show, winning only a single seat despite contesting on 13 in alliance with the AIUDF, which fought on seven seats, a tie-up most in the party feel will cost it dear.

However, the lone Congress winner in the BTC polls, Sajal Kumar Singha from Srirampur constituency, too has shifted his allegiance to the BJP.

The Congress responded by expelling him for anti-party activities. The anti-defection law does not apply in the council formed under the Sixth Schedule.

Medhi told The Telegraph: “I joined the Congress in June 2018 because it was the only party which could take on the BJP. I could have also joined the BJP, which was in power both in Delhi and Dispur. However, after over two years, I feel the Congress is not serious about fighting the BJP. It also has no strategy.”

These reasons are something most PCC office-bearers admit in private given the party’s freefall in the state since the BJP unseated it in 2016 after 15 years of uninterrupted reign under the chief ministership of Tarun Gogoi, who passed away in November due to post-Covid complications.

The former Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (a peasant organisation) leader also said he will be now joining one of the regional forces such as the Raijor Dal or the Assam Jatiya Parishad floated to take on the BJP. “We may win or we may lose but I am sure we will be in the contest. My objective is to unite the regional forces, something the Congress too should try before the 2021 Assembly elections,” he said.

A section of Congress insiders said Medhi’s departure would not impact the party because such exits are routine before elections and when the party is in the Opposition but they did not dismiss the reasons cited by Medhi to leave the party.

“It is true our electoral fortunes have dipped. People are unhappy with the BJP but the Congress is not being seen as an alternative. We need to be more cohesive and convincing as a unit. We need few faces who could connect with the masses, a political narrative promising hope. If these things are not fixed as soon as possible we don’t stand a chance, forget about putting up a fight,” a PCC general secretary told this newspaper.

However, there were others such as Assam PCC general secretary Bobbeeta Sharma. Refuting Medhi’s contention, she asserted that the party has been working on the ground. She cited the party’s outreach during the ongoing Covid crisis or collecting 20 lakh signatures to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act. “We don’t know what he meant by strategy. If strategy is poaching people from other parties or betraying allies or dividing people along religious lines like the BJP does, we have no such strategy,” Sharma said.

Congress legislator Rupjyoti Kurmi has told a media house that the state leadership should learn its lessons from the BTC debacle which he attributed to its tie-up with the AIUDF, which failed to open its account. Kurmi said he has always opposed the alliance and will continue to oppose it.

“The Congress has once again been reduced to zero and this has a lot to do with the wrong selection of candidates. We will be reduced to single digit in the next Assembly polls if this drift continues,” a Congress insider rued, referring to Monday’s defection to the BJP.

Owing to reservations over the alliance issue, AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam, Jitendra Singh, has said the central leadership will take a call on whether there will be any tie-up with the AIUDF in the Assembly polls early next year. Singh is expected to visit Guwahati after December 20, sources said. “Time is running out. The AICC has to take some concrete and effective steps by this month,” one of them said.

The new council will be formed on Tuesday morning in Kokrajhar after the Raj Bhavan accepted the claim of the “majority” three-party “post-election coalition” of the BJP, United People’s Party Liberal and Gana Suraksha Party under the leadership of Pramod Boro of the UPPL. As many as five BTC members will be sworn in on Tuesday.

However, the Bodoland People’s Front, which emerged as the single largest party winning 17 out of 40 seats, has decided to legally contest governor Jagdish Mukhi’s decision to invite the coalition instead of the BPF to form the council.

“We too had staked our claim on Sunday and sought seven days’ time to prove our strength. Going by tradition, we should have been invited to form the council. Had we failed, the coalition could have been invited,” said BPF general secretary Prabeen Baro.

The BPF had been ruling the council since 2003. The first election was held in 2005.