Personal attacks, character assassination backfired on Opposition: Assam CM

Guwahati, May 26 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Tuesday launched a sharp attack on the Opposition in the Assembly, without taking the name of the Congress, accusing a certain political party of indulging in personal attacks against his family instead of focussing on development and public welfare.

Participating in a discussion in the House, Sarma said the results of recent elections had clearly demonstrated that people of Assam do not support “personal attacks, slander and politics of character assassination”.

“The election results have clearly proved that the people of Assam never support personal attacks and abusive politics,” the Chief Minister said.

Sarma alleged that over the last five years, both inside and outside the Assembly, a section of the Opposition believed they could achieve electoral success by targeting his family members, particularly his wife.

“There was a deliberate attempt to attack my family and mislead the public. At one point, fake allegations were circulated claiming that my wife possessed multiple duplicate passports,” he said.

The Chief Minister further claimed that leaflets carrying defamatory content against his family were distributed extensively.

Referring to a particular incident, Sarma alleged that two truckloads of pamphlets containing objectionable remarks against his family were recovered near the residence of an MLA.

“Later, some people admitted that they had not prepared those leaflets on their own and that they were acting at the direction of senior leaders,” he said, without naming anyone directly.

Sarma also criticised a section of the media, alleging that for months certain newspapers continuously carried negative stories against him and his government.

According to him, Assam’s voters rejected such politics and instead voted for development, employment and welfare.

“The people of Assam have sent a clear message that they want development and progress, not politics centred around attacking someone’s family,” he said.

Sarma urged all legislators to understand the public mandate and focus on governance and constituency development rather than “personal criticism and political gossip”.

“The people expect us to work for employment generation and the development of constituencies. That is why they have elected us,” the Chief Minister added.

The remarks triggered protests from Opposition Benches, with legislators accusing the BJP government of diverting attention from key public issues.

–IANS

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