Guwahati: In a display of visible petulance on the polling day to the Assam Assembly elections, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma launched a stinging personal attack on the digital news platform The Lallantop, dismissing its legitimacy and refusing to answer critical questions regarding his controversial campaign rhetoric.
The confrontation, which unfolded in Sarma’s home turf of Jalukbari on Thursday, saw the Chief Minister trade administrative accountability for personal derision. When pressed for a response to allegations leveled by Congress leader Pawan Khera regarding “Passport-gate”—a controversy involving claims of multiple foreign passports held by the CM’s wife, Sarma chose deflection over detail.
The ‘unparliamentary’ defense
The exchange reached a boiling point when a reporter from the outlet questioned whether the Chief Minister’s recent campaign language—already under the scanner for being “aggressive” and “communal”, bordered on the unparliamentary.
Rather than defending his choice of words, Sarma pivoted to a personal offensive. “My language is always better than Lallantop’s,” he retorted, mocking the digital outlet’s identity before questioning the reporter’s right to even solicit a comment.
“Did you take an appointment with me? I haven’t invited you to any press briefing. Why are you asking me questions?” Sarma demanded, before abruptly terminating the interaction with a blunt, “I do not want to talk to you.”
A pattern of deflection
The incident is the latest in a series of high-tension media encounters for the Chief Minister during this election cycle. Earlier in the same interaction, Sarma dismissed senior Congress functionary Pawan Khera as a “fugitive,” refusing to engage with the explosive corruption charges and the “Wyoming shell company” allegations that have dominated the opposition’s final campaign push.
When asked about the Congress party’s claims of an impending victory, Sarma appeared to ridicule the very existence of the opposition, a move critics say highlights an increasing intolerance for dissent within the state’s political discourse.
Electoral implications
The Chief Minister’s refusal to engage comes at a precarious moment. As Assam votes in a high-stakes, single-phase election today, the tone of the campaign has shifted from development to a deeply polarized war of words. Sarma’s dismissal of a major digital news platform—while simultaneously avoiding questions on his own record—has raised fresh questions about transparency and the state of press freedom in Assam.
With voter turnout surging toward 60% by mid-day, the optics of a Chief Minister “fleeing” from tough questions in his own constituency may provide the opposition with the final-hour ammunition they have been seeking.