Insecurity making Assam CM attack Gaurav Gogoi: Congress-OxBig News Network

File picture of Ripun Bora. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Assam unit of Congress on Sunday (May 25, 2025) said a feeling of insecurity was making Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma attack Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi over his alleged Pakistani links.

The party’s senior leader and former MP, Ripun Bora, said Mr. Sarma has been jittery about the possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party losing the 2026 Assembly polls if Congress projects Mr. Gogoi as the candidate for the Chief Minister’s post.

“The Chief Minister views Mr. Gogoi as his prime rival, especially because of the BJP’s inability to prevent him from winning the Jorhat parliamentary seat in 2024 despite using money, muscle, and the government machinery,” Mr. Bora said.

The Congress leader also said the Chief Minister’s insecurity became more apparent after Mr. Gogoi was made the Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for the second successive time, underscoring his rising political graph.

“The Chief Minister’s allegations against Mr. Gogoi are hollow, and he knows that. The Special Investigation Team probing the charges has power only within the boundaries of Assam, and it has no authority to investigate in Pakistan or even the neighbouring country’s embassy in India,” Mr. Bora said.

The State Congress president, Bhupen Kumar Borah, said he has asked Mr. Gogoi to stop responding to Mr. Sarma’s accusations on social media or any other platform. “He is answerable to the investigators, not to the Chief Minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, addressing journalists in eastern Assam’s Jorhat town, Mr. Gogoi said he wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, highlighting the illegal coal syndicates operating across Assam and Meghalaya. “Neither the Assam government nor its Meghalaya counterpart has taken signification action against the illegal coal mining and trade that has claimed several lives,” he said.