New Delhi: Former Union minister and four-time MP Rajen Gohain resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam on October 9, in the most significant exit to roil the party’s state unit since it came to power in 2016.Gohain, a former president of the Assam BJP, submitted his resignation at the party’s Guwahati headquarters along with 17 supporters, according to reports.His departure brings a long-simmering internal conflict into the open, highlighting a rift between the party’s old guard and the newer leadership consolidated under chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined the BJP from the Congress in 2015.In his resignation letter, Gohain alleged the party had betrayed indigenous communities. He later told reporters the BJP he joined under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani no longer exists.“After bringing people from other parties, the older people who have given the prime of their lives to the BJP have been sidelined,” Gohain said, according to The Indian Express, which also reported him as having said that the BJP is now “the biggest enemy of the Assamese people”.“Around 30-40 seats in the Assam Assembly were once decided by the Ahom community. But today, there is no constituency over which it can claim rights to a ticket. The whole community has been broken and scattered. The political sway they should have had has been made non-existent… Today Ashok Singhal (a minister in the Sarma Cabinet) can contest from any seat in Assam because no Assamese community has deciding power anywhere,” Gohain said, according to Indian Express.A key trigger for his discontent has been the 2023 delimitation exercise. Gohain, who belongs to the Ahom community, resigned from a cabinet-rank post last year in protest. He alleged the redrawing of his former Nagaon constituency made it “unwinnable for BJP candidates” by changing its demography.The Economic Times reported that during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Gohain had warned that ignoring old party workers would have “consequences.” Gohain represented Nagaon from 1999 to 2019 but was denied a ticket in the last two elections, with the seat being won by the Congress on both occasions.The BJP, however, downplayed the impact of his exit. State party spokesperson Ranjib Kumar Sarmah told Indian Express that Gohain had been amply “rewarded” by the party.“He has been a Union Minister of State, he had a Cabinet-rank position in the state government. What more can he want?” Sarmah was quoted as saying. “The party is not just for one person.”Note: This report has been updated with the correct image of Rajen Gohain.