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GUWAHATI, AUGUST 10: BJP state president Babulal Marandi on 9 August accused a top Jharkhand police officer of hatching a conspiracy to involve Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Marandi said that the officer had paid someone for going to Delhi and Guwahati during the Jharkhand Assembly elections last year allegedly as a conspiracy against Sarma. He announced that he would soon come out with more information and asked Chief Minister Hemant Soren to make it clear if the reported acts were done with his consent.
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Sarma, the co-in-charge for Jharkhand polls of the BJP, said in Guwahati that the issue may be a “political conspiracy” and that he would meet Marandi to know more.
In an X post, Marandi asked which top police official had twice sponsored trips to Delhi and Guwahati with the aim of implicating the Assam CM, stating evidence would be revealed soon. The Jharkhand assembly elections were conducted in two phases on November 13 and 20 last year, with the JMM-led alliance winning.
Marandi also confronted Soren and questioned whether he knew about these supposed actions. He cautioned that an officer with the ability to conspire against a top leader could do the same against Soren for selfish reasons. The BJP leader also claimed that the same group had maintained a minute-by-minute record of Soren’s activities, with documents to back it up, and had sent or arranged to send over a hundred complaint letters signed and unsigned in his name to different authorities.
Marandi urged Soren to seek a detailed probe by state government agencies and even promised to personally take him to view the documents. “It’s likely that seeing all this could help you find the snakes in your sleeve,” he said.
Responding to the allegations, Sarma admitted that two women — one of them Assamese — had come to his office and made suspicious utterances, but he handled them as he would any public person and sent them away. When questioned if it was an effort to frame him in a honey-trapping case, Sarma replied he had yet to discuss the issue with Marandi as he was holding meetings with regard to Bodoland Territorial Council elections.
“I will speak to him today evening and get the facts,” Sarma said, adding that this seemed to be an instance of political conspiracy instead of personal motives. The development comes ahead of Assam’s Assembly elections next year.
