Guwahati, Feb 17: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that then-Congress president Sonia Gandhi had asked him to choose the date for his swearing-in as chief minister in 2014, when 58 Congress MLAs had backed him to replace incumbent Tarun Gogoi.
Speaking to reporters after a cabinet meeting at the state legislative assembly, Sarma said the situation changed after Rahul Gandhi, then in the USA, intervened with phone calls to party leaders.
“Madam (Sonia Gandhi), whom I still call that, asked me to decide the date. I told her I would take oath after the Ambubachi Mela at Kamakhya Temple in June 2014,” Sarma said, adding that Rahul Gandhi’s intervention altered the course of events.
Sarma, who defected to the BJP in 2015 and later helped the party secure its first assembly election win in Assam, said he was hurt at the time but believes everything worked out for the best. “God gave me far more than I would have gotten in Congress,” he said.
He further stated that as BJP CM since 2021, he has served Assam and Sanatan Dharma fully, which he said would have been impossible in Congress, and hinted at recounting these events in a future book.
