Baghel pitches polls as real vs fake Cong battle

Guwahati: Senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday said that the upcoming Assam assembly elections would be a contest between the “real” and the “fake” Congress, asserting that chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is leading the latter.Baghel, who is the party’s election observer for Assam, said the “real Congress” is led by state party president Gaurav Gogoi, while Sarma heads the “fake” Congress. “This time, the election in Assam is not BJP versus Congress. Rather, it is a contest between the real Congress and fake Congress,” Baghel told reporters. He pointed out that Sarma was a minister in three successive Congress governments in Assam before joining the BJP in 2015. Baghel also referred to the recent defections of former state Congress chief Bhupen Bora and Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who are now contesting on BJP tickets.“After Gogoi assumed leadership, a new political atmosphere has emerged in Assam. This time, the people will give Congress an opportunity to form the government under his leadership,” Baghel said, adding that there is a favourable wave for the party.He further alleged that voters want an end to what he described as “misrule and intimidation by one of the most corrupt chief ministers in the country.”