Assam CM says ‘Rahul Gandhi listens to my advice’, then takes dig at t-shirt

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over changing his looks, claiming that the latter listens to his advice as he shaves off or grows a beard.

In an interview with News Nation channel, the Assam chief minister said when he commented on Rahul Gandhi’s long beard, during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in 2022, and compared his look with that of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Congress leader shaved off soon after that. Taking another dig at his former party colleague, Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that Rahul Gandhi looked like an “Amul boy” when he clean-shaved.

“Coincidentally, as soon as I said that Rahul Gandhi looked like Saddam Hussein, he shaved off his beard. And after shaving off his beard, when I said that he looked like the Amul Boy, he grew a light beard… Rahul Gandhi do listen to my advice,” the Assam chief minister claimed in the interview.

The BJP leader further slammed the Wayanad MP by claiming that the Constitution book that the latter has often been seen displaying at his public rallies was not the Indian Constitution. Sarma said the Indian Constitution has a blue cover and it needed to be verified whether Rahul Gandhi was carrying a Chinese Constitution.

“If the Lal Kitab shown by Rahul Gandhi in his rallies is actually the Constitution of India, then why is the Congress against the UCC? Baba Saheb’s Constitution says to implement the UCC, but the Congress manifesto says that they will bring Sharia law. So I doubt whether that book is our Constitution or not,” he said.

Sarma also highlighted that the Narendra Modi-led NDA would undertake several tasks, such as building Krishna Janmbhoomi temple in Mathura and Kashi Vishwanath temple in place of Gyanvapi Mosque in Varanasi; implementing the Uniform Civic Code (UCC) in the country; and making India the third-largest economy in the world if the BJP-led NDA wins 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections.

“Why is Modi ji asking for 400 seats from the people of the country? The answers are – the work of Kashi and Mathura has to be completed legally, the country’s economy has to be brought to the third place in the world, and UCC has to be implemented,” the Assam chief minister said.

The mammoth process to elect 543 MPs for the 18th Lok Sabha concluded on Saturday. Various pollsters predict a wide range of seats for the ruling NDA, with estimates ranging from 353 to 383 seats for the BJP-led alliance and 152 to 182 seats for the opposition INDIA bloc.

The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be announced on Tuesday after the vote counting.