Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
GUWAHATI
The war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress in Assam has reached the court and police station ahead of the elections to the 126-member Assembly, likely by April.
On Tuesday (February 10, 2026), Chief Minister Himanta Biswa filed a ₹500 crore defamation suit against three Congress leaders, including Jorhat MP Gaurav Gogoi. Around the same time that he announced this on social media platforms, two Congress MLAs — Sibamoni Bora and Diganta Barman — lodged a police complaint against him over a controversial AI-generated video.
“Today, I have filed a defamation case seeking ₹500 crore in damages against Congress leaders Jitendra Singh, Bhupesh Baghel, and Gaurav Gogoi for making false, malicious, and defamatory allegations against me through a press conference,” Mr. Sarma posted on X.
He did not explain the allegations, but said on the micro-blogging site on February 4 that he would initiate civil and criminal defamation proceedings against the trio, as well as Debabrata Saikia, the Congress Legislature Party leader.
In their complaint at Guwahati’s Dispur police station, the two Congress MLAs cited the now-deleted video depicting the Chief Minister symbolically firing at Muslims at “point blank range”. The Assam unit of the BJP had posted the “highly provocative content” on X on February 7.
The complaint stated that the overlaid text in the video included phrases such as “foreigner-free Assam”, “No mercy”, “Why did you not go to Pakistan?”, and “There is no forgiveness to Bangladeshis”. These, the MLAs said, implied the Bengal-origin Muslims of Assam, “often derogatorily labelled as Miyas or Bangladeshis”.
“The aforesaid content targeting a particular community is highly provocative and communal, which will definitely lead social disharmony amongst the people. Therefore, you are requested to register a case under appropriate sections of penal law and take necessary action in this regard (sic),” the complaint read.
Published – February 10, 2026 04:06 pm IST
