Guwahati: After its decision to issue show cause notices to five of its leaders on Saturday (September 14) generated a minor stir, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) has decided to henceforth refrain from publicly announcing if its leaders or members have been show caused.
Among the five leaders who were issued a show cause notice by the APCC’s disciplinary action committee (DAC) for “breach of party discipline” is Mira Borthakur, the action against whom especially raised eyebrows as she was the Congress’s candidate for the coveted Guwahati Lok Sabha seat in this year’s general election.
Borthakur is also president of the Assam Mahila Congress.
APCC vice president and senior spokesperson Bobbeeta Sharma told The Wire, “Earlier, we used to give press releases on show cause notices. But since the leadership has decided not to give official media releases of show cause notices [any more], the APCC’s DAC will henceforth abide by the decision of the leadership.”
Debabrata Saikia, leader of opposition in the state assembly, told this reporter, “The reason we have decided not to issue media releases about issuance of show cause notices is totally internal. We used to do it publicly. But now we have decided not to do it.”
On Sunday, APCC president Bhupen Borah addressed the press, saying, “This was an internal matter and it is quite disappointing to know that this surfaced before the media, and I have expressed that this shouldn’t have happened in this manner.”
The other leaders who were issued a show cause notice by the DAC on Saturday are sitting MLAs Abdur Rashid Mondol, Rekibuddin Ahmed and Bharat Chandra Narah; as well as Hailakandi district Congress committee president Samsuddin Barlaskar.
The three-member DAC, which gave the five leaders one week to respond, said on Saturday that it had received around 56 complaints, allegations and petitions from block and district-level Congress workers as well as poll candidates across fifteen districts in the state.
It said it was engaged in an exercise aimed at identifying “party members who were directly or indirectly involved in anti-party activities during the last Lok Sabha elections of 2024, which is considered as breach of party discipline”, adding that it “physically verified” allegations of anti-party activities in some parts of Assam.
“Party members holding responsible positions speaking out of turn in front of electronic media and sharing public posts etc. in social media against party leadership, policies and ideologies adversely affect party image … create confusion and damage morale of rank and file of party workers,” it also said.
Speaking to The Wire, Borthakur denied being involved in anti-party activities and said she only found out about her being show caused from the media.
“I have complete faith in the Congress party. I should be made aware of the accusations against me. I want to know the exact reasons as to why my name was included among those who were issued show cause notices. The show cause notice hasn’t been sent to me,” Borthakur said.
She added: “It doesn’t make any sense. I was the Lok Sabha candidate for the coveted Lok Sabha seat of Guwahati. I only got to know this from media reports about my name being issued a show cause notice.
“I am confident about myself that I was never involved in anti-party activities, and I have faith in the Congress party.”
A former spokesperson, media convenor and finance committee member in the Assam BJP, Borthakur quit the saffron party in 2018 after openly objecting to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.
She joined the Congress in January 2021 and unsuccessfully contested from the Guwahati West assembly constituency during the 2021 Assam assembly elections.
In this year’s general election, she lost to the BJP’s Bijuli Kalita Medhi by a margin of 2,51,090 votes.
One month after the general election, the DAC was formed in July after the APCC received 35 complaints from sources across six states in Assam.
The complaints were against some ‘primary members’ involved in anti-party activities during the general election. The APCC set a 15-day window for anti-party activities or grievances to be reported to the DAC.
Sources said that the DAC’s show cause action this month was being done to tie up loose ends and enhance the Assam Congress’s inner organisational structure, keeping an eye on the upcoming panchayat polls in November as well as the 2026 assembly polls.
“The DAC … wants to make its stand clear that transparency and discipline are the fundamental principles to maintain the unity and sanctity of the grand old Congress party,” Saturday’s press release said.
Sharma, the APCC vice president, told The Wire in July that examples of anti-party activities speaking against the party’s candidates, not cooperating with party members, harming the party’s image by speaking against it in media interactions, distortion of facts, spreading misinformation, disinformation and leaking sensitive information.
In February, Congress MLA for Karimganj North, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, resigned from his post as working president of the APCC.
Along with Mangaldoi Congress MLA Basanta Das, Purkayastha offered open allegiance to the BJP led-state government over chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s ‘development work in Assam’.
Both Purkayastha and Das were served with show cause notices and suspended from the party.
In 2021, the APCC issued show-cause notices against 212 party workers and leaders who were allegedly involved in anti-party activities during the assembly elections held that year.
And in October 2021, the APCC issued a show cause notice to MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed for his “politically motivated” statements, which it said he made “with the intention of damaging the party’s reputation.”
