Training his guns on Rahul Gandhi, who is leading Congress' 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday the Gandhi scion nowadays looked more like former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Gandhi has been seen sporting a beard during the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.
During a public rally in Ahmedabad, while campaigning for the Gujarat election on Tuesday, Sarma said, "I just saw that his looks have also changed. I said in a TV interview a few days back that there is nothing wrong with his new look. But if you have to change the looks, at least make it like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel or even Jawaharlal Nehru will do. It is better if it looks like Gandhiji. But why is your face turning into Saddam Hussein?"
"This is because the Congress culture is not closer to Indian people. Their culture is closer to people who have never understood India," PTI quoted Sarma as saying.
Hitting back at the Assam CM, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Digvijay Singh said that Sarma should be ashamed of speaking ill about Rahul Gandhi as "whatever he is today is because of the Congress leader".
Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah also took a dig at Himanta Sarma. He said, "You (Assam CM)just want a headline & you get that only when you take Rahul Gandhi's name. Himanta Biswa Sarma can say anything. He can go to any level for power. We don't pay attention."
Congress leader Manish Tewari, addressing a press conference in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, said the Assam CM was sounding like a "petty troll".
"I would not even like to dignify this diatribe with my reaction. I think it is very important that we maintain the decorum of language in public and maintain some propriety. The CM of Assam unfortunately sounds like a petty troll when he articulates sentences of this type," PTI quoted Tewari as saying.
Elections for the 182-member Gujarat Assembly will be held on December 1 and 5 and the counting of votes will be taken up on December 8 along with that of Himachal Pradesh.