Rupjyoti Kurmi, four-time Congress MLA and its lone representative from the influential tea community in the Assam Assembly, resigned from the party on Friday to join the ruling BJP.

After submitting his resignation as an MLA to Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary, the 43-year-old Mariani MLA said he would join the BJP at a function at Lakhimpur on Monday.

Kurmi was accompanied by cabinet minister Pijush Hazarika and Jayanta Malla Baruah, the political secretary to the chief minister, to the Speaker’s office.

Both of them said Kurmi would be an asset to any party, flagging his departure as a big blow to the Congress as he was not only a recognised face of the party but also its lone MLA from the tea community. The influential community, once considered the Congress’s vote bank, has been voting overwhelmingly for the ruling BJP since 2014.

That the blunt and fearless Kurmi will be joining the BJP had been in the air for some time now, especially after he publicly declined the post of Congress Legislature Party secretary last month while asserting he was fit to be the Assam PCC president.

He was also unhappy with the party’s pre-poll tie-up with the AIUDF, a key reason for the Congress’s dismal performance in Upper Assam in the recent state polls. Congress won 29 seats, three more than in 2016, despite stitching up a 10-party alliance.

A couple of days ago he had targeted both PCC president Ripun Bora and vice-president Rakibul Hussain for the party’s “plight” in Assam. On Friday, he said the duo had “destroyed” the party. “There will be more exodus,” Kurmi, whose deceased mother Rupam was a three-time Congress MLA and a minister, said.

Kurmi also came down heavily on the central leadership for the Congress’s freefall since 2014, targeting former party president Rahul Gandhi.

“We won two successive general elections since 2004 under Sonia (Gandhi) madam because she used to understand the feelings of small community leaders like us. This is not the case with Rahul ji. He has not been accepted. Even in Kerala, from where he is an MP, the party did not win the state polls,” Kurmi told The Telegraph.

The Congress responded by expelling Kurmi for “anti-party activities” and formed a three-member committee to visit Mariani and interact with party leaders and workers there to boost their morale.

PCC president Bora, CLP leader Debabrata Saikia and AICC secretary Bhupen Kumar Borah described the development as unfortunate. They said Kurmi’s resignation was a loss because he was an asset but they were confident of the party bouncing back as it has done in the past.

Borah also said: “You cannot retain professional politicians who want to be on the side of power but I am hopeful the new generation, today’s youth, are keeping a watch on these developments. They will decide Assam’s future.”

The day also saw the Congress’s Guwahati city unit chief Jury Sharma Bordoloi resign from the party. Like Kurmi, she is set to join the BJP.