‘Himantha is the most corrupt in the country’: Rahul Gandhi backs Pawan Khera as passport dispute escalates

New Delhi: Even as the Assam polls settled, the bitter standoff between Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Congress party witnessed an ugly escalation on Monday with Rahul Gandhi calling the Assam CM “the most corrupt in the country” who “misuses state power to harass his political opponents”.The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha backed his party colleague Pawan Khera, whose Assam residence in Delhi was raided by the police over explosive allegations against Himanta’s wife. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said “the Congress stands with Pawan Khera” and “the party will not be intimidated”.“The current CM of Assam is the most corrupt person in the country. He will not escape the justice of the law. He is abusing state power to harass political opponents and critics, which is unconstitutional.” The questions raised must be explored. Transparency, accountability and the rule of law are the foundation of our constitutional values. Congress party stands with Pawan Khera. We will not be intimidated,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in an article against Himanta, who switched from the Congress to the BJP in 2016.Kaira’s claim at a press conference that the Assam CM’s wife holds multiple foreign passports struck a nerve with Himanta, triggering a sharp rebuttal and legal threats from the BJP leader.“We have documents showing that Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife Riniki Bhujan Sharma holds three passports. The first is an Emirates Gold Card, the second is an Antigua and Barbuda passport and the third is an Egyptian passport. Two of them belong to Islamic countries but they still openly claim to be religious,” Hera said.Salma subsequently dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and said he and his wife would file a defamation lawsuit against Kayla within 48 hours. “Pawan Khera’s press conference today reflects the deep frustration and panic within the Congress party. As Assam moves decisively towards historic mandate, such desperate and baseless attacks only expose their decline,” he wrote on X.As the confrontation began to deteriorate, the Telangana High Court granted anticipatory bail to Kaira in a case related to Kaila’s alleged defamatory remarks against CM Sarma and his wife.