Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday made a startling political claim: that in 2014, then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had virtually cleared his name for the chief minister’s post — only for a phone call from Rahul Gandhi to change the course of events.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting at the state assembly, Himanta Sarma said that when dissidence rocked the Assam Congress after the 2011 Assembly polls, a majority of MLAs had backed him to replace then chief minister Tarun Gogoi. According to Sarma, the numbers were firmly in his favour.
“Madam (Sonia Gandhi), whom I still refer to as such, had asked me to decide on the date and I had told her that I would take oath the day after the Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya Temple in June (2014),” he said.
However, he claimed the situation shifted dramatically after Rahul Gandhi, who was in the United States at the time, spoke to party leaders.
“The situation changed after Rahul Gandhi made the calls,” Sarma said, without elaborating on what transpired in those conversations.
’58 MLAs SUPPORTED ME’
Himanta Sarma asserted that when senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge visited Assam during the crisis, 58 MLAs had expressed support for him. A handful remained neutral, while only 12 wanted the status quo to continue under Tarun Gogoi, he claimed.
“Justice was not given to ‘me, but Kharge always told my opponents in the party: you fight with Himanta but he has the MLAs’,” the chief minister said.
Though he admitted he was “hurt” at the time, Sarma now says he views the episode differently.
“I was hurt then, but now I believe that whatever happens in one’s life is for the best and God has given me much more than what I would have got, had I remained in the Congress,” he said.
“As the BJP CM, I got a chance to serve both Assam and Sanatan dharma wholeheartedly, which would not have been possible had I been in the Congress. I thank Rahul Gandhi for this,” added Sarma, who joined the BJP in 2015 and became chief minister in 2021.
He hinted that there is more to the story and said he would elaborate if he ever writes a book.
“These are facts and there are many witnesses to this but I am thankful that it did not happen as I would have become tainted for eternity,” he said.
WHY HE LEFT CONGRESS
Himanta Biswa Sarma resigned from the Tarun Gogoi cabinet in 2014 and quit the Congress the following year, later playing a key role in scripting the BJP’s first Assembly victory in Assam.
On Tuesday, he suggested that the “real reasons” for his exit are still not fully known. “People do not know the real reasons why I resigned from the cabinet and then the Congress but ‘one day they will’,” he said.
He also criticised what he described as the Congress “eco-system”, saying it was difficult for leaders from ordinary backgrounds to survive in the party.
The remarks came on a day when the Congress suffered another setback in Assam. Former state Congress president Bhupen Borah is set to join the BJP on February 22, Sarma announced after a meeting at Borah’s residence in Guwahati.
“Borah, along with some of his supporters, will join the BJP in Guwahati, but there will be another joining programme at Lakhimpur from where he hails, as many Congress members have expressed their desire to follow his steps,” Sarma said.
He described Borah as a “grassroots leader” and predicted that his resignation would have a “huge psychological impact” on Congress workers.
The chief minister claimed that Borah’s decision reflects deeper problems within the Congress.
“The Congress addresses issues with appeasement. It was only after he had tendered his resignation that party leadership rushed to his residence,” he said.
Sarma added that Borah was not joining in exchange for an Assembly ticket. “He is not joining the BJP in exchange for an assembly seat. There is no bargaining involved… If required, he can even contest from Jalukbari (the CM’s constituency).”
(With inputs from PTI)
