BJP paid all election trip costs of Himanta Biswa Sarma: Assam CM Office

Amidst allegations of misusing public funds for election campaigning, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's office has denied the accusations stating that all election-related expenses have been borne by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

In response to a joint investigative report by New Delhi-based The Wire and Guwahati-based The Crosscurrent, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) released a statement on February 3 clarifying the expenditure details. The report claimed that Sarma utilized state government funds amounting to crores of rupees for hiring helicopters and chartered planes to campaign for the BJP, both within and outside the state.

The CMO countered the allegations, asserting that no expenditure related to Himanta Biswa Sarma's election campaigns has been drawn from the state exchequer. "All expenses, including flights, are paid for by the political party via bank transfer/cheque," the statement read.

Addressing the specific incidents highlighted in the report, the CMO explained that while official visits may coincide with social functions like weddings or condolence meetings, such occurrences are infrequent compared to the number of official engagements undertaken by the Chief Minister since May 2021.

The CMO criticized the media outlets for making sweeping conjectures based on incidental social programs attended by Sarma. Referring to the hyperlinked tweets in the news article, the office accused the authors of attempting to spread disinformation and questioned the malicious intent behind assuming a single tweet as the sole agenda of a particular day.

Dismissing the report as a "mischievous, misleading, and lazy hit job," the CMO slammed 'The Wire' for selective reading of tweets and stated that the accusations were based on a flawed understanding of the Chief Minister's official engagements.

Citing RTI replies, the media portals alleged that Sarma had also used taxpayers' money to hire chartered planes for personal events such as weddings. The Chief Minister's Office, however, refuted these claims and asserted that the report was based on a dishonest interpretation of facts.