DIBRUGARH, June 25 - The Congress-led Sonowal Kachari Autonomous Council (SKAC) is likely to be dissolved as three of its members, along with two Independent members, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the district office of the saffron party at Amollapatty here on Friday.
The number of Congress members in the SKAC has been reduced to 11, while the number of BJP members has gone up to 14. Before this development, among the 26 elected members of the Council, 14 were from the Congress, nine from the BJP, two were Independent candidates and one was from the Asom Gana Parishad.
Tankeshwar Sonowal from Gogamukh, Biswajit Sonowal from Naharkatia and Ghanakanta Saikia from Jonai are the Congress members who shifted their allegiance to the BJP. The two Independent members who joined the BJP are Diprekha Das Baghri of Dhemaji and Khanindra Sonowal of Telahi, North Lakhimpur. These two Independent candidates had earlier supported the Congress-led SKAC headed by Dandi Sonowal.
Congress member Tankeshwar Sonowal was the chairman of the Council, while Ghanakanta Saikia was one of the executive members. The SKAC was formed on October 29, 2013 with Congress member Dandi Sonowal as its chief executive councillor.
The five members were welcomed to the BJP by local MLA Prasanta Phukan, Lahoal MLA Rituparna Baruah and BJP SKAC member Dipuranjan Markary.
As the Congress has been reduced to a minority, the BJP will form the Council, BJP leader Dipuranjan Markary said. The Congress defectors were not available for comments.