Chaygaon/ Guwahati: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that though Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma thinks he is a ‘raja’, he will be put in jail for corruption.
Alleging that the BJP and the EC “stole” the Maharashtra elections from the Congress and its allies, and they are trying to repeat it in Bihar, Gandhi urged party workers here to be vigilant to thwart any such attempt in the northeastern state.
“The CM thinks he is the ‘raja’ and is busy 24 hours a day handing over your wealth, land to Adani and Ambani. But if you listen to his voice carefully, look at his face closely on TV, fear is writ large,” Gandhi said.
The leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha was addressing a party workers’ meet at Chaygaon, around 40 km from Guwahati.
“He (Sarma) knows that the fearless Congress workers will put him in jail,” he asserted.
Gandhi claimed that the CM and his family will be held accountable for their corruption, and the media will be showing him taken to prison, and not even Narendra Modi or Amit Shah will be able to save him.
“The Congress won’t have to do it. The youth, workers, farmers, people of all communities and religions know how corrupt he is, and they will do it,” he claimed.
Ahead of the event at Chaygaon, Sarma said in an X post that Gandhi had made the same assertion in a closed-door party meeting earlier in the day in Guwahati and expressed “best wishes” for the Congress leader.
He, however, did not elaborate on how he came to know Gandhi’s comment.
“‘Take it in writing, Himanta Biswa Sarma will definitely be sent to jail’ — these were the exact words spoken by the Leader of the Opposition, Shri Rahul Gandhi, during his closed-door meeting with the Congress Political Affairs Committee in Assam,’ Sarma said in the post.
He also said the Congress leader has “conveniently forgotten” that he himself is out on bail in multiple criminal cases registered across the country.
Alleging that the Election Commission of India and the BJP are working together, Gandhi claimed at the rally that the saffron party won the Maharashtra assembly polls by ‘cheating’ through voter list revision.
He alleged that one crore voters, all in favour of the BJP and its allies, were added to the electoral roll in the western state within a four-month gap between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections last year.
It led to Congress and its allies losing the assembly polls even after winning the Lok Sabha elections in the same state four months back, he claimed.
“The BJP-EC stole the Maharashtra election from us,” he alleged.
Gandhi claimed that the same tactic is being tried in Bihar and “names of poor people, workers, Congress voters, RJD voters are being deleted through the special intensive revision of electoral rolls”.
“They will try the same tactics in Assam. Our responsibility is to ensure that they cannot do it,” he added.
Taking a swipe at the media, Gandhi said, “I used to call the media our ‘friend’, but they are not our friend anymore. They are not revealing the truth, but only showing Adani, Ambani, CM, Modi and Shah.”
Gandhi, however, asserted that this will not help, as the people know the truth and the Congress will sweep the assembly polls in Assam due next year.
He congratulated the new state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi for starting their work already, and said people will start seeing the results soon.
Gandhi alleged that just as in Assam, land is being taken away across the country from people and given to a few industrialists.
“Thousands of acres of your land are being given away to Adani, Ambani, Ramdev. It is happening in Maharashtra, everywhere in the country. Small traders, farmers, workers, who are the backbone of the nation, are being wiped out for the sake of five-six billionaires,” he claimed.
Gandhi also claimed that there are two Hindustans now: one of a few billionaires who host lavish weddings, and the other of common people burdened with tax and inflation.
“There is a fight of ideologies in the country; the hatred and violence of the RSS versus the truth and non-violence of the Congress,” he said.
He asserted that the Congress members are the ‘sipahis’ (warriors) in this battle of ideologies and exhorted them to take it forward.
