Sonia offered me Assam CM post, but Rahul overturned it: Himanta

Himanta Biswa Sarma has revealed that he could not become Assam's Congress chief minister because of Rahul Gandhi's intervention. Earlier, Sonia Gandhi had asked me to decide date of my swearing in as Assam's Congress CM when 58 MLAs backed me in 2014. Talking to reporters in Guwahati, Sarma on Tuesday , as BJP CM, I got chance to serve both Assam and Sanatan dharma which would not have been possible had I remained in Congress. According to him, the atmosphere in Congress is such that people from ordinary families cannot survive there.  Members of the Congress royal family achieve high positions by parachute landing. This is why the workers who have worked hard in the grassroots have no future in the party, he alleged.

कांग्रेस के राजघराने के लोग parachute landing करके उच्च पद हासिल करते हैं।

इसी वजह से grassroots में परिश्रम करके आगे आए कार्यकर्ताओं का उस पार्टी में कोई भविष्य नहीं है। pic.twitter.com/spT3kmdaZ2

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 17, 2026

Sarma, who later quit the Congress in 2015 following differences with the leadership and joined the BJP, also reflected on how events unfolded. He had accused the then chief minister Tarun Gogoi of promoting his son Gaurav Gogoi, now the state Congress president.The Assam Congress had witnessed dissidence after the 2011 assembly polls, with a section of the MLAs supporting Sarma as the chief minister, replacing the incumbent Tarun Gogoi.