'One family is looting everything': Priyanka Gandhi targets Assam government over 'systematic plunder'

Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a blistering attack on the Assam government on Wednesday, April 1, accusing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of presiding over systematic plunder of the state's vast natural wealth while ordinary people struggled to make ends meet.

Addressing election rallies at Nazira and Tingkhong in support of party candidates Debabrata Saikia and Bipul Gogoi, respectively, Vadra alleged that Assam — a state rich in land, mines, forests and natural resources — was being hollowed out by a select few with political backing. "One family is looting everything in Assam. And when they are not looting, mines, lands and every other asset are being handed over to big industrialists," she said.

The Congress MP alleged that the BJP government had reduced itself to running the state through fear. "PM Modi and CM Himanta are ruling the country and state with fear and threats. Our fight is against that fear, and for protecting Assam's culture and civilisation," she told the gathering. She further claimed that women were being coerced into attending government rallies under threat of having their names struck off the state's flagship poverty alleviation scheme, Orunodoi.

Vadra also dusted off a string of old corruption allegations, citing scams linked to Sarada, Smart City and NC Hills as evidence of what she called entrenched graft under BJP rule. She dismissed the party's much-touted "double-engine government" as something far less flattering. "In reality, it is a double-ghulami (slavery) government. PM Modi is engaged in slavery of the US, and Himanta Biswa Sarma is engaged in slavery of Modi," she said.

The Congress leader also took aim at the BJP's record on longstanding promises, alleging that daily wages for tea garden workers had not been raised despite repeated assurances, and that tribal communities awaiting Scheduled Tribe status continued to be strung along. "Various tribal communities have been demanding ST status for years. The BJP had promised to accord ST status to them, but they failed to give it," she said.

Polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly is scheduled for April 9, with results to be declared on May 4.