Guwahati: Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind (A) chief Arshad Madani’s claim of trying to persuade Congress leader Sonia Gandhi to decline election tickets to Himanta Biswa Sarma, has incurred a sharp rebuttal from the latter.
Madani said that he had requested Gandhi not to give an election ticket to Sarma (he was with the Congress then), reports NDTV.
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Madani said he had warned the party leadership against the current Assam Chief Minister Sarma.
He alleged that Sarma had an “RSS mentality.”
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“I wrote to Sonia Gandhi asking her not to give a ticket to Himanta Biswa Sarma from Congress, as he had an RSS mentality. Now he is setting Assam on fire,” Madani added.
However, Madani’s statement opened a can of worms with the saffron party rebuffing it.
“Today, Madani has warned me, and Rahul Gandhi had threatened me earlier. I want to tell Madani that the more you threaten me, the more the people of Assam will rise up and fight against them. We will continue to evict illegal settlers and ensure the land rights of the indigenous people. I challenge Madani and Rahul Gandhi to fight with the Assamese people, and we will defeat them,” Sarma was quoted.
BJP spokesperson Amit Malviya slammed the Congress stating that the party stood on the “wrong side of the civilisational debate”.
“The question is: do Maulvis decide who gets Congress tickets? It is becoming increasingly clear that Congress stands on the wrong side of the civilisational debate,” he wrote on X.