Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for allegedly rushing to places only where elections are being held but not during times of disaster or crisis.
Khera, chairman of AICC’s media and communications department, made the remark while reacting to Modi’s two-day visit to poll-bound Assam on March 13 and 14.
This was Modi’s fifth visit to the state since September 2025.
“The Prime Minister does not come to Assam during floods. During Assam’s difficult times, Modi does not visit the state. He has not gone to Manipur either because there is no election there. As soon as election dates are announced, he will run to Manipur as well,” Khera said.
Modi visited Guwahati and Silchar, launching multiple development and connectivity projects while urging people to hand out “the strictest punishment” to the Opposition Congress in the upcoming elections. He also attacked the Congress for allegedly backing infiltrators.
Referring to Modi’s remark on Saturday that the Congress does not know how many zeros come after ₹24,000 crore, Khera said: “Yes, we do not know, because such enormous sums benefit only your party and your close friends.”
Responding to Modi’s allegation that the Congress has become a puppet in the hands of forces seeking to weaken the country, Khera said the party has never been anyone’s puppet and will never become one.
Instead, he alleged that Modi has become a puppet of the United States out of fear of the Epstein files. “Modi has become a puppet of the Epstein gang,” Khera said, adding that the Congress would continue to expose the truth before the people.
He added that the country’s economic condition has become so dire that Modi lacks the courage to speak about it and instead continues to attack the Congress in his speeches.
While referring to Modi’s claim that he became Prime Minister after selling tea, Khera asked whether the Prime Minister had fulfilled the demand for Scheduled Tribe status for the community.
Khera said it was the Congress that “placed” Assam’s tea industry on the world map, whereas the BJP government had “destroyed” the industry over the past ten years.
Modi had tried to connect with the influential tea community in Guwahati on Friday by recalling his journey from a tea-seller to the Prime Minister’s post.
Khera also attacked chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, saying it was “Assam’s misfortune that such a person became the chief minister, but now the time for change is approaching”.
Polling in Assam will be held on April 9.