GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said he would “reveal the body double part” involving Congress leader Rahul Gandhi following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state.
“We have identified the body double which was used by Rahul Gandhi during the padayatra. Once the prime minister goes back from Assam, I am going to give you a press conference and reveal the body double part,” Sarma told journalists.
Modi is coming to Assam on Saturday on a two-day visit to unveil and lay the foundation stones for various developmental projects worth more than Rs 11,000 crore.
Sarma claimed it was not Gandhi but his body double who cheered the crowd for most part during the Yatra. He said after a media house had uploaded the photograph of the body double, the person quietly left Guwahati.
“After the controversy (erupted), that person quietly left Assam from Guwahati airport directly to Delhi without accompanying him (Gandhi) to the last leg, which reconfirms my allegation. I don’t want to enter into that now,” Sarma said.
To a query, he said he did not expose anything but the media house in question did. Referring to a social media post, Sarma had said on January 25 that the person on the front seat on the Yatra bus was not Gandhi. He claimed the man in front did not look like Gandhi from close quarters. He looked like Gandhi from a distance, the CM had further claimed.
“I have not seen though. Congress people told me there is enough space in the bus for eight people to sit in a room and he (Gandhi) spends most of his time there. Who is sitting in front then?” he had asked.
Earlier, two cases were registered in Assam pertaining to the Yatra. An FIR was registered against Gandhi for the violence in Khanapara area of Guwahati when alleged Congress supporters broke police barricades. The other case was registered in Jorhat.
Sarma told journalists on Friday that a special investigation team was probing the Guwahati case while the one in Jorhat was being investigated “in a normal way”. Recently, he stated Gandhi would be arrested after the Lok Sabha elections.