Priyanka: Let Himanta speak on plans for next 5 yrs, not 10-year-old issue

Guwahati: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday said Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma should speak on jobs, development and plans for the next five years instead of raising a “10-year-old” issue about his alleged chance of becoming the state’s Congress CM.

Speaking to reporters here, Vadra also targeted Sarma over alleged corruption, concentration of wealth in “one family” and “handing over” of the state’s assets to big industrialists. She claimed that people of Assam were realising that the time had come for a “change”.

“There are many decisions taken in politics. Some go in favour, some against. We have to bear with it. What would I say if he (Sarma) is still crying over the 10-year-old issue,” Vadra said, when asked about Sarma’s recent claims on the possibility of becoming a Congress CM.

Sarma on Tuesday claimed the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked him to decide on the date for his swearing in as Assam CM when 58 party MLAs supported him in 2014. The scenario, however, changed after Rahul Gandhi, who was in the US then, made phone calls to party leaders, he alleged.

The Assam Congress had witnessed dissidence after the 2011 Assembly polls, with a section of MLAs backing Sarma as the CM, replacing incumbent Tarun Gogoi. Sarma left the party to join the BJP in 2015, and played a pivotal role in ensuring the saffron party’s first victory in the Assembly polls in 2016. mpost