Silchar Poll Shock: Just 2 Days Before Voting, Congress Candidate Tapas Das Switches to BJP

Congress candidate from Ward 18 of the Silchar Municipal Corporation has decided to leave the party and join the BJP ahead of the civic elections.

Tapas Das announced his decision on Wednesday (September 30), saying he would stop campaigning as a Congress candidate and instead campaign for the BJP. His sister Monty Das addressed the media about the decision.

Monty said Tapas was contesting the election as a Congress candidate but would now switch parties and become a BJP member. At the time of the announcement, Tapas was still wearing a scarf bearing the Congress symbol.

According to Monty, the decision was taken after the family and Tapas visited homes across the ward during the campaign and understood the problems faced by residents. She described the issues as serious and said they felt they would not be able to address them effectively through the Congress.

She said Tapas would have had a strong chance of winning had he remained with the Congress, but argued that an elected councillor would have limited ability to address the ward’s problems when the governments at the Centre and state level are led by the BJP.

Monty said they had promised residents that they would work to resolve their problems, but questioned how much they could achieve without support from the government. She also referred to local minister Kaushik Rai also being from BJP while explaining the reasoning behind the decision.

She said the party switch was being made with what they described as the interests of the people of Ward 18 in mind. Tapas will now stop his Congress campaign and campaign for the BJP instead.

Tapas said there was no leader in the Congress party to guide them and expressed his support for the BJP. He also appealed to voters to support the BJP.

The development comes shortly before the Silchar Municipal Corporation election and marks a political setback for the Congress in Ward 18.