Gujarat polls: Assam CM slams Kharge's tea remarks

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday said that dogs have a higher value in the Congress party in comparison to humans. Sarma's comment came as a reaction to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's tea remark. Earlier on Sunday, Kharge stoked a controversy with his remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Kharge, while addressing a public rally at Dediapada in the tribal-dominated Narmada district of poll-bound Gujarat, said, "A person like you (PM Modi) claims to be poor. I am also poor, I am one of the untouchables. People drank your tea, nobody would've had my tea."

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"Then you say that you are poor and somebody abuses you. If you say it for sympathy, then people have become smarter now. If you lie once or twice, people will hear but how many times will you lie? He's the leader of lies..," Kharge added.

Earlier on Monday, Sarma told ANI, "Mallikarjun Kharge said, no one has tea with me. So maybe Rahul Gandhi doesn't have tea with Kharge ji and Congress follows such practices. Congress MP Rahul Gandhi should tweet a backdated picture in which he could be seen having tea with Mallikarjun Kharge."

"What I feel is that dogs have a higher value in the Congress party in comparison to humans. So Mallikarjun Kharge's comment that no one has tea with me, may be partially correct," Sarma added. Sarma addressed a press conference in Ahmedabad, capital of the poll-bound state.

Gujarat has been a BJP stronghold for a long and the party has set its sights on returning to power for the seventh term.

In the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP won 99 of the total 182 seats. The party has been in power in the state for the last 27 years. However, it faces a stiff electoral challenge from the AAP, which is eyeing a big electoral footprint in the state after storming to power in Punjab. Congress also hopes to put its best electoral foot forward to unseat the BJP.

The counting of votes for Gujarat will take place on December 8.