A large group of Koch-Rajbongshi leaders and workers resigned from the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) in Chirang accusing the party leadership of failing to make its stand clear on the long-pending demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for six communities of Assam, including the Koch-Rajbongshi community.
The announcement was made at a press conference held in Sidli, where several senior leaders from the community gathered to declare their decision. Former president and chief advisor of the All Koch-Rajbongshi Students’ Union (AKRASU), Arun Kumar Roy, and Sribas Barman led the resignation. They were joined by central committee member Kusumbar Choudhury, as well as Samiran Singha, Diganta Roy, and 22 other leaders from district, block and primary units of the party. All of them publicly stated that they were giving up their primary membership of the UPPL with immediate effect.
Speaking to the media, the resigning leaders said the decision was collective and taken after long discussions within the community. They said that UPPL president Pramod Boro had not clarified the party’s official stand on granting ST status to five communities of Assam, including their own, and this silence had caused deep disappointment. They added that they were placing the interests of their community above party politics, and that their move was also influenced by appeals made by Akrsss and KLO (NDFB) asking Koch-Rajbongshi members to act in unity. 
The leaders further appealed to all Koch-Rajbongshi individuals who currently hold posts at any level within the UPPL to resign from the party in order to strengthen the community’s ongoing struggle for ST status. They said the issue was directly connected to the identity and protection of their people, and that indecision from political parties would no longer be accepted.
Meanwhile, the resigning leaders strongly condemned the incidents of vandalism that took place at the BTC Secretariat in Kokrajhar on Friday. They criticised the actions of some Bodoland University students who had been protesting against granting ST status to six communities. They said such destructive activities do not help any democratic movement and only create more tension in the region.
