Old foes, new target: A look at Himanta Sarma, Gaurav Gogoi saga over the years  

During his stint with the Congress, Himanta rose quickly in the party. He got elected as an MLA on the Congress ticket for consecutive three terms since 2001. The then CM and Gaurav’s father Tarun Gogoi inducted Sarma into his Cabinet, allotting him important portfolios like Health and Education. He became one of the late CM’s close lieutenants.

After the April 2011 Assam Assembly elections, the rifts in the relations between Tarun Gogoi and Himanta appeared, as the former was seen to be trying to get his son into public life.

Himanta had assisted Gaurav in managing the 2011 Assembly elections in which the Congress had again emerged as the winner, obtaining 79 of the state’s total 126 seats. That election also saw Gaurav’s entry into politics as he actively campaigned for the party.

In 2012, Gaurav formally joined the Congress and was immediately seen as his father’s successor, even as Himanta was looking to assume his political legacy keeping the CM’s chair in his sights.

With Gaurav’s elevation within the Congress, Himanta started feeling left out.

Gaurav launched his electoral debut in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from the Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency, which he won comfortably.

Himanta eventually exited from the Congress in 2015 with his tussle with Gaurav hitting a flashpoint.

In his resignation letter addressed to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Himanta had lashed out at the “despotic family-centric politics”.

“Our collective dream to make Assam a front-ranking state shattered at the whims and fancies of a single individual. A despotic family-centric politics constantly emboldened by a bunch of sycophants had never allowed a rational and neutral voice to reach to the Congress leadership in the state,” Himanta wrote to Sonia.

“Entire party dispensation in Assam is obsessed with one agenda, i.e how to give party nomination to their son and daughter. However, for people like me who have no blue blood but a passion for a developed nation and a resurgent Assam, it’s time to move on,” Himanta stated in his letter.

Himanta then joined the BJP, going on to become the CM after the party returned to power by winning the 2021 Assembly polls.

The two leaders have been taking on each other over a range of issues in the public.

In 2023, Gaurav went on an offensive against Himanta, alleging that the CM had used his influence to secure approval for a Rs 10 crore grant under a Central government scheme for a media company run by his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma. Himanta rejected Gaurav’s charges, denying that his wife and her company had claimed or received any subsidy from the Centre.

Over the past week, the BJP has launched an offensive against Gaurav’s wife Elizabeth Gogoi, who is originally from the UK and works in climate policy.

Sarma posted on X on Wednesday morning that Indian Foreign Services officers require permission from the Union government to marry foreigners and commit to their spouses acquiring Indian citizenship, and asked why the same was not the case with politicians.

He then seemed to refer to social media accounts pointing to Elizabeth Gogoi having worked in Pakistan as well during her time at the Climate Development and Knowledge Network (CDKN), Asia, between 2011 and 2015.

Himanta said: “Serious questions need to be answered regarding allegations of ISI links, leading young individuals to the Pakistan Embassy for brainwashing and radicalization, and (Elizabeth Gogoi’s) refusal to take Indian citizenship for the past 12 years…”

On Thursday, Himanta took the allegations a notch further and said that Gogoi raised questions in “Parliament on sensitive defence matters after his marriage to a British citizen”.

“In 2015, the Pakistani High Commissioner to India, Mr Abdul Basit, invited a first-term Member of Parliament (MP) and his startup, Policy for Youth, to discuss India-Pakistan relations at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi,” Sarma claimed in a post on X without naming Gogoi.

The chief minister also said, “Notably, this MP was not a member of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs at the time, raising questions about the intent behind his engagement.” Sarma claimed that the visit occurred “despite India’s official protest against the Pakistani High Commission’s interference in internal matters, particularly its involvement with the Hurriyat Conference”.

“Interestingly, these developments occurred immediately after his marriage to a British citizen with a professional background that raises further questions,” Sarma alleged.

Rejecting these allegations, Gogoi told PTI Video, “The BJP has no issues to raise and is dependent on false accusations. The people of India are very active politically and are aware of the lies and confusion that the BJP is spreading.”