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 chance of becoming the state’s Congress CM.
Priyanka also targeted Biswa 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 (your) 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,” Priyanka said when asked about Biswa Sarma’s recent claim that he could have become a Congress CM.
Earlier this week, Biswa Sarma said then-Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked him to decide on the date of his swearing-in as Assam CM after 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, Biswa Sarma alleged.
The Assam Congress had witnessed dissidence after the 2011 Assembly polls, with a section of MLAs backing Biswa Sarma as CM in place of incumbent Tarun Gogoi.
Biswa Sarma, who later joined the BJP, did ultimately did become chief minister of Assam in 2021, after the saffron party won a second term.
“Please tell the CM that he should speak about Assam’s development. Let him speak about Assam’s people and tell what he has done for them. Let him speak what he is going to do in the next five years. The youth wants to know it,” Priyanka said.
The youth and women want jobs, and the public cannot be misled so easily, she asserted.
“People can see how Assam’s assets are being handed over to one family and big industrialists. These assets belong to the people of Assam. The land being given away are people’s properties,” Priyanka said.
Appealing to voters, particularly the youth, Priyanka urged them to support “positive politics” focused on strengthening the state.
“You have seen how much corruption has taken place. This corruption is a betrayal with the people of Assam. They are seeing this and understanding it. They are also identifying that time has come for a change,” the Wayanad MP added.
