Assam poll battle heats up as Rahul and Sarma spar each other
The political landscape of Assam in run-up to the 2026 polls heated up on Wednesday as the war of words took place between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma with the former accusing the latter of corruption and threatening Sarma of jail. Sarma hit back at Rahul saying that he is “conveniently forgetting” that he himself is out on bail in “multiple criminal cases”.
Former Congress leader Sarma, who switched to BJP in August 2015, also in a signal of his political prowess claimed that he knows exactly what is discussed in Congress’s closed-door meetings.
What added weight to Sarma’s claim was his assertion that Rahul has told his workers in a closed door meeting that he is going to send him (Sarma) to jail. It was prior to Rahul’s attack in the afternoon on Sarma during his address to party workers at Chaygaon—40 km away from Guwahati.
Taking to X, Sarma alleged, “Take it in writing, Himanta Biswa Sarma will definitely be sent to jail’ — these were the exact words spoken by the Leader of the Opposition, Shri Rahul Gandhi, during his closed-door meeting with the Congress Political Affairs Committee in Assam…”.
Sarma didn’t stop there. Hitting at Rahul, he took a jibe at the LOP’s legal battles. “He came all the way to Assam just to say this, conveniently forgetting that he himself is out on bail in multiple criminal cases registered across the country. My best wishes to you, Rahul ji. Enjoy the hospitality of Assam for the rest of the day,” Sarma wrote.
Rahul in his address attacked Sarma, reiterating what hours before the latter had posted on X.
“Your CM does not consider himself as a CM, he considers himself as the ‘King’ of Assam. And the King of Assam is busy giving your wealth to Adani and Ambani. But if you listen carefully to his voice on TV, you will get to know that behind his voice, there is a fear. He talks about big things. He shouts. But if you will see his face on TV today and listen to his voice, you will see that there is fear in his voice and in the depth of his heart,” Rahul said.
He added, “Because he knows one day Congress’ lions are going to catch him and put him in jail. He knows the corruption he has done, the corruption his family has done, one day he has to give account of that to the people of Assam. I don’t speak without thinking. What I say usually happens. Today I am telling you that within sometime, the same media people will show your CM going to the jail. From this neither Modi nor Amit Shah can save him. You will see him inside jail.”
Earlier, the Congress’ newly elected state unit chief Gaurav Gogoi, who is also the deputy LOP in Lok Sabha, told reporters that the party was gearing up for a strong and focused battle.
“The Congress will fight for the people of Assam — for land ‘pattas’ for indigenous people, the protection of cultural identity, and the rights of religious and linguistic minorities. Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi are here to tell the people — ‘daro mat’ (fear not), the Congress stands with you,” Gogoi said. He accused the Sarma-led BJP government of grabbing land across the state, claiming that the Chief Minister and his cabinet now own the highest amount of land in Assam.
“They have not spared a single district — there are resorts near elephant corridors in Kaziranga, orchards and hotels set up illegally, and industries built on agricultural land in the names of ministers’ wives,” he alleged.
Gogoi also claimed that nearly 50,000 bighas of land belonging to indigenous and minority communities had been handed over to outsiders. “There is no land security — whether in Upper Assam, Lower Assam, the Barak Valley, or even the hills of Guwahati,” he said.
India