The Chief Minister Office (CMO) Assam on Saturday claimed that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has never gone for election campaigning on state exchequer and all expenses, including flights were borne by the BJP party via bank transfer/cheque.
This comes after a media outlet in collaboration with a Guwahati based news portal in its report alleged that the Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma used state government funds amounting to crores of rupees to hire helicopters and chartered planes to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party, both within and outside the state.
The report was based on a Right to Information replies from the Assam government.
Hitting back at the two media outlets, the CMO said that the story by the media outlet is mischievous, misleading and a lazy hit job based on selective reading of handful of tweets.
Taking to the official ‘X’ handle, CMO said, “No expenditure of HCM Dr @himantabiswa election campaigns are borne by the state exchequer. All expenses, including flights, are paid for by the political party via bank transfer/cheque.”
It, however, said whenever Sarma visits any district in the state or neighbouring states for official engagements, there could be social functions such as condolence meetings or weddings that coincide with the visit.
The CMO further stated the authors of the media outlets made sweeping conjectures based on incidental social programs which the state chief minister has attended.
“Using a single tweet from a given day to assume it was the sole agenda of that very day reeks of a malicious attempt to spread disinformation and dishonest intention of the authors,” the CMO added.
