Congress leaders who joined BJP bag cabinet berths

Former Congress leaders, who had joined BJP in in the runup to polls in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, have been rewarded with cabinet portfolios.

Former Congress leader Yanthungo Patton, who had joined BJP after leaving Naga People’s Front (NPF), has been allotted home and national highways.

Patton had left BJP to join NPF, but returned to the saffron fold before the 2018 assembly polls -- he won from the Tyui assembly seat. In Meghalaya, Congress leader Alexander Laloo Hek who had joined BJP, is now the leader of the legislature party in Meghalaya and a cabinet minister. He is looking after departments such as Arts & Culture, Health & Family Welfare and Information & Public Relations.


Political observers attribute this to better career prospects that the BJP offers. “The elevation of Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as the Northeast India strategist and formation of a platform of non-Congress parties, Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA), has helped the saffron party understand the emerging politics of Northeast India,” said observers.

“In Assam, BJP started the process of induction of leaders from other parties before Lok Sabha polls in 2014. Current Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal joined the saffron party from Asom Gana Parishad (AGP).

Sonowal won the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat before becoming the chief minister. Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh left Congress to join the BJP. These developments prove that BJP is not averse to giving crucial posts to leaders who have defected from other parties,” explained the observers In Tripura, as many as 12 MLAs, who had left Congress and Trinamool Congress, have won on BJP tickets.

BJP has won 36 seats, while its partner -- Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) -- won eight seats in Tripura. Ratan Lal Nath, for instance, left Congress to join the BJP. He is now Minister for Education (Higher), Education (School), Law (including Parliamentary Affairs), Welfare of Others Backward Communities, and Welfare of Minorities.