Guwahati, Jan 20: : Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has warned the Congress that “two bad elements” participating in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra would be arrested a few months after the Lok Sabha elections.
The threat by the Assam chief minister came at a time when Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was at Gogamukh in Lakhimpur district on the second day of his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in the state.
Notably, for the second day in a row, Gandhi criticised Sarma and termed him the “most corrupt” chief minister and even went on to say that the “the Assam chief minister could give lessons to his counterparts of other BJP-led ruled states on how to indulge in corrupt practices”.
Sarma however did not reveal who the ‘two bad elements’ are even as he said that “if the Congress reaches Guwahati without permission, no case will be filed then as I don’t want to give them unnecessary limelight in the national media”.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Friday intensified its criticism of the Assam chief minister after the BJP leader threatened to arrest two “bad elements” participating in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, who is in the state, said that the chief minister was flustered by the “tremendous response” the party’s outreach programme had received over the past two days in Assam.
Insisting that no rules have been broken during the Assam leg of the yatra, Ramesh further went on to say that the Assam chief minister could threaten and intimidate but the Congress and the participants of the yatra were not afraid.
“The chief minister is disturbed by the impact of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which will continue in Assam for another six days in spite of his efforts to disrupt it,” Ramesh took to microblogging site X to state.
Earlier, an FIR was lodged by the Jorhat Police against the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra for allegedly deviating from its pre-approved route, which led to a chaotic situation and a near stampede-like condition.
On the FIR, Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi asserted that neither he nor his party would be intimidated by the FIR or any other form of pressure.
“The people are with us. We will not be scared of anyone or any FIR. In a democracy, no government can stop us.” he said.