Guwahati, Sept. 4: Two top All Assam Students' Union leaders Tapan Kumar Gogoi and Sankar Prasad Ray will soon join the BJP, the party's Assam unit president Siddhartha Bhattacharya said today, putting an end to all speculation.

Gogoi and Ray, who respectively held the posts of general secretary and president of the influential students' organisation for 10 years till March, will formally join the BJP on September 16. The duo are currently advisers of the union.

While both Gogoi and Ray have refused to speak at this moment, sources close to them told The Telegraph that the duo would formally quit AASU during its emergent executive body meeting scheduled to be held in the city on September 12.

A meeting of AASU representatives from different districts will be held on the same day.

According to the ASSU constitution, none of its members and leaders can have any affiliation to any political party. Under such circumstances, sources said, Gogoi and Ray will have to formally resign from the posts of AASU advisers to pave their ways to join the BJP.

In March, AASU leaders, including Gogoi and Ray, had categorically denied holding talks with the Assam unit of the BJP to join the party. They were reacting to Assam BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharya's claim that a few top AASU leaders had held talks with them on joining the party.

Gogoi and Ray had termed the state BJP president's statement as "false, baseless and a conspiracy" against the students' union. They said they did not have any plan to join electoral politics. The AASU leaders even warned Bhattacharya against hatching a conspiracy against the students' union.

An elated Assam BJP president today confirmed that both Gogoi and Ray would formally join the party on September 16. "I had a talk with Gogoi and Ray this morning. They have decided to join the BJP," Bhattacharya said.

The AASU, which had led the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement in Assam, produced some prominent political leaders in later years. Among them are two-time former chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and present Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined the BJP on August 28, was also a leader of the students' union once.

Former AASU leader and minister Jagadish Bhuyan joined the BJP in June.

Sources said AASU leaders joining the BJP was likely to generate a debate in political and social circles since the BJP had made U-turns on several issues of Assam soon after it came to power at the Centre in 2014.

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the All Assam Minorities Students' Union recently accused the AASU of being "soft" on the BJP's U-turns because of its political equation.

Tapan Kumar Gogoi, however, said he would speak on his decision to join the BJP after September 12.