All India Congress Committee Media and Communications Department Chairman Pawan Khera launched a wide-ranging attack on the BJP-led Assam government on Wednesday, alleging that it had begun rushing through welfare measures and infrastructure projects only after years of neglect, as elections draw near.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, Khera compared the government's sudden activity to students who begin studying only days before an exam — and suggested the outcome would be similarly poor.
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Khera pointed to the recent Rs 9,000 distribution to women under the Orunodoi scheme, hurried flyover inaugurations, and the belated attention to tea garden workers' wages as examples of election-driven activity rather than genuine governance.
He also took aim at the BJP government for allegedly circulating AI-generated images of modern roads on social media and presenting them as actual roads in Assam. "Assam still ranks third in the country in terms of poor road conditions," he said.
Khera alleged that the BJP government spends approximately Rs 500 crore of taxpayers' money every year on political publicity, saying he counted more than a thousand banners featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma along the road from Guwahati airport alone.
Khera also criticised the government's handling of the case involving late artiste Zubeen Garg, alleging that despite boasts of a watertight charge sheet, the case was so poorly built that the court had to order the unfreezing of the accused's bank account.
He criticised the Cabinet decision to rename Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College, calling it an insult to Assam's first and only President and saying that even a figure of that stature had not been spared.
Khera renewed a previous allegation, challenging the Chief Minister to respond to reports that he had met a cleric named Dewan Mohammad Saidur Rahman Sisti Saidabadi in Dhaka before joining the BJP, and alleged that Sarma's switch to the BJP was made on the advice of that cleric during a period of political uncertainty.
On the question of electoral alliances, Khera said decisions are based on grassroots feedback, and that while fighting a party with significant administrative and financial resources, alliances sometimes become necessary.
When asked about APCC President Gaurav Gogoi's social media post on the Raijor Dal talks, Khera offered a pointed response: "The post contained commas, semicolons and question marks — but no full stop yet."
Khera expressed confidence that under Gaurav Gogoi's leadership, Congress and its allies would form the next government in Assam and establish what he called a "new Assam model" that would benefit every Assamese citizen.