New Delhi: The Congress has accused the BJP and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of launching an "atrocious smear campaign" against party leader Gaurav Gogoi, calling it an act of "character assassination." Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh stated that legal action is being initiated in response to the allegations.

According to Ramesh, the attack on Gogoi is politically motivated, driven by his victory in the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat in June 2024 despite heavy BJP campaigning. He further alleged that Gogoi’s revelations about corruption under Sarma’s administration had provoked the Assam CM into resorting to defamation tactics. “The Assam CM, like his supreme leader in New Delhi, is a master of defamation, distortion, and diversion,” Ramesh said in a post on X.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, escalating his attack, claimed that a police case might be filed against Gogoi and a special investigation team could be set up to probe allegations linking the opposition leader’s British wife, Elizabeth Colburn, to Pakistan. He suggested that an inquiry would be conducted into whether Pakistan’s ISI attempted to infiltrate the Chief Minister’s Office during the tenure of Gogoi’s father, the late Tarun Gogoi.

Gaurav Gogoi responded by accusing the BJP of using extreme measures to defame him and his family. He vowed to take legal action, while publicly addressing his wife in a letter written in Assamese and shared on Facebook, assuring her that truth would prevail.

The Congress has maintained that these allegations are an attempt by the BJP to divert attention from governance failures in Assam. Ramesh went a step further, predicting that within a year, the people of Assam would vote the BJP out and send Sarma into the opposition.