73 private nursing home doctors join BJP ahead of Assam assembly polls
Guwahati: As many as 73 doctors working at private nursing homes in Assam have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at its Atal Bihari Vajpayee Bhawan in Guwahati on Sunday.
The doctors joined the party in the presence of Assam BJP president Dilip Saikia and Health Minister Ashok Singhal, according to a post shared by the BJP on social media.
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The induction gives the BJP another significant group of professionals as the party continues efforts to strengthen its organisational presence across Assam. The doctors' entry also comes amid a series of high-profile political inductions into the party in recent months.
Former Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah joined the BJP at Vajpayee Bhawan in February, while senior Congress leader Pradyut Bordoloi also crossed over ahead of the Assembly polls. Bordoloi later contested and won the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket before resigning, triggering a bypoll scheduled for October 6, Hub News reported.
Former Nagaon District Commissioner Debashish Sharma, who voluntarily retired from the IAS in September, also joined the BJP and was later fielded as the party’s by-election candidate. His entry prompted the Congress to approach the Election Commission of India.
Journalists Lenin Saurav Bora and Gunjan Kalita have also joined the BJP ahead of the poll.
The BJP’s recent induction programmes have increasingly included people from outside conventional political circles, including doctors, advocates, architects, journalists and other professionals.
In Cachar, Trinamool Congress district president Rajesh Deb, senior leader Mohan Lal Das and 48 others recently joined the BJP ahead of the Silchar Municipal Corporation polls.
The party has also organised mass induction programmes involving workers and leaders from the Congress, TMC, AAP and other political organisations. At one such event earlier this year, Dilip Saikia said nearly 400 workers from other parties had joined the BJP.
The induction of the doctors is significant beyond the numbers. In urban and semi-urban Assam, doctors command considerable influence through professional networks that extend across wide sections of society. Their public induction alongside the state BJP president and Health Minister also places the move within the broader political conversation around healthcare and private medical practice, reports the Hub News.
The timing of the latest induction also comes against the backdrop of continued political mobilisation in the state, with the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll scheduled for October 6. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other senior BJP leaders have been campaigning extensively in the constituency.
The recent movement of former political leaders, bureaucrats, journalists, grassroots workers and professionals into the BJP reflects the party’s efforts to broaden its organisational base beyond traditional political cadres.
Whether the entry of the 73 doctors translates into electoral influence remains to be seen. For now, the induction sends a clear political message: the BJP is seeking to deepen its organisational footprint in Assam by bringing influential professionals and members of civil society into its political network.
