Guwahati, May 5: Assam caretaker Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on May 5 took a swipe at Congress leader Pawan Khera, suggesting that a press conference held during the election campaign inadvertently worked in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Addressing the media in Guwahati, Sarma remarked in a lighter vein that he would thank Khera with sweets if summoned by police authorities in Assam. “When the police call Pawan Khera here, I will feed him a lot of peda and thank him for it,” he said.
The Chief Minister claimed that the press interaction had politically benefited the BJP, stating that it contributed to a shift in voter sentiment during the campaign. He added that the development played a role in strengthening the party’s electoral position, even linking it to the defeat of Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi in Jorhat.
The remarks come in the aftermath of a decisive mandate for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which returned to power in Assam for a third consecutive term in the 2026 Assembly elections. The BJP alone secured 82 seats in the 126-member Assembly, underlining its dominant performance across the state.
In one of the key contests, BJP candidate Hitendra Nath Goswami defeated Gaurav Gogoi by over 23,000 votes in the Jorhat Assembly constituency, marking a significant setback for the Congress in Upper Assam.
