In the midst of the ongoing political drama in Jharkhand, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stated that he is still in contact with Congress cadres due to his 22-year association with his former party. Sarma’s remarks came after Jharkhand Congress MLA Kumar Jaimangal accused Assam CM of playing a key role in the horse-trading of MLAs in order to bring down the JMM-Congress coalition government.
“Even topmost persons of Congress keep in touch with me. We don’t talk about politics but being in a party for over 22 years, we keep in touch. I don’t know why FIR was filed on this,” Biswa stated to reporters. Sarma switched from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2015.
Jaimangal claimed in a police complaint filed in Ranchi that the three Congress MLAs arrested by police in West Bengal’s Howrah with 49 lakh cash had called him to Kolkata to take him to Guwahati and meet the Assam CM in order to engineer a defection.
After bringing down the JMM-Congress government in Jharkhand, the Congress MLA claimed he would have been promised a ministerial berth and cash worth crores. “He assured me that Shri Sarma is doing it with the blessings of top shots of the BJP political party sitting in Delhi,” according to the letter.
“I do not want to be part of this unconstitutional, illegal and downright criminal activity and hence informing you that please take action against those who are stationed in Kolkata with a token amount and pressuring me to come to Kolkata and accompany them to Guwahati,” it added.
The police have filed no charges against the three legislators, Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap, and Naman Bixal Kongari. The SUV in which the MLAs were travelling was stopped on National Highway-16 in the Panchla police station area at Ranihati.
During questioning, the MLAs stated that they intended to purchase the sarees from Kolkata’s wholesale market at Burrabazar for distribution at a tribal festival, according to a police officer familiar with the situation.