Did Gogoi back Himanta in 'wrongdoing'? Asks BJP

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 22: Hitting back at Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for his relentless criticism to BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, the State BJP today said that if Sarma had done anything bad as a minister in Tarun Gogoi’s Cabinet he might have done that with the support of the Chief Minister.

In a statement issued to the press today, BJP’s Assam Pradesh spokesperson Rupam Goswami said: “The Chief Minister keeps on criticizing Himanta Biswa Sarma ever since the latter deserted the Congress. While in the Congress as a minister in his Cabinet, Himanta Biswa Sarma was the Chief Minister’s blue-eyed boy. However, no sooner had he deserted the Congress and Gogoi’s Cabinet, be became a corrupt minister in the eye of the Chief Minister. This essentially means that if Sarma was a corrupt minister, the alleged corruption might have taken place with the support of the Chief Minister or else he (Gogoi) would have punished Sarma for those corrupt practices. It doesn’t need to be explained before the people of the State that what Gogoi is talking against Sarma now is nothing but mudslinging.”

Criticizing the Chief Minister further, Goswami said: “Gogoi openly saying that he will go ahead with distribution of yarn and blankets precisely means that he is out to keep the people of the State poor without carrying out any development works for them so that he can buy their votes before elections just by giving them yarn and blankets. This is what he has been doing for the past 15 years in the State.”

Meanwhile, Pritirupa Saikia, another spokesperson of the State, said in another statement that the Chief Minister has been deceiving the minority people of the State for the past 15 years. “These people have been deprived of potable water, electricity, sanitary facilities etc., for the past 15 years during which the Congress Government in the State used them as vote banks. However, these people will teach Gogoi a lesson by electing Sarbanda Sonowal as the Chief Minister of the State,” she said.