The Assam chief minister on Sunday asked Rahul Gandhi to delay his visit to Srimanta Sankardeva’s birthplace Bordowa till the Ram temple consecration was over in Ayodhya, hours before the Nyay Yatra faced an attack from suspected BJP members that left the Assam Congress president with a bleeding nose.

The Bordowa Than management committee joined chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in asking Rahul to postpone his visit till late afternoon, but the Congress remained firm about it taking place on Monday morning.

Tempers ran high on the Yatra route in Sonitpur district, with attacks on senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s car and on state Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah.

Borah, waving his blood-stained handkerchief at a meeting after the attack, said: “We will fight. We gave our blood today, we will give our life if needed.”

He said BJP goons had "attacked" him when he tried to stop an assault on the Yatra bus. A Congress worker, Hridaya Das, was injured, a party leader said.

A Congress leader from Sonitpur district has lodged a police complaint over the attack on Borah. The police said they had started a probe.

Chief minister Sarma has asked the police to probe the attack on Ramesh’s vehicle.

Sometime before the attack, Sarma, addressing a media conference in Guwahati, requested Rahul to go to Bordowa Than (in Nagaon district) after 2pm, by when the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya would be over.

“I will request Rahul Gandhi... he can go to Batadrava (Bordowa) Than tomorrow but it should not happen like there is a competition between the Ram temple and Batadrava,” the chief minister said.

“We will feel good or else there will be two windows on TV. We cannot stop anyone from going but those two windows on TV will go against the image of Assam. One side of the TV will show the Ram temple consecration and the other Batadrava.”

He added: “There is no competition (between the two places) and he (Rahul) should not come and create that competition.... There should be no double window (on TV). That will be very sad for the people of Assam.”

Sarma said it pained him that Rahul had chosen to go to Bordowa on Monday, and also pass through Jagiroad and Morigaon, which are “all sensitive places”.

“They should have avoided these places. I will not ask them officially because they will create a tamasha. Police will be deployed, and we will ensure that there is no conflict or clashes because in their Yatra a particular community comes out (an allusion to the ‘Miya’ or Bengali Muslim community),” he said.

“I am feeling a little perturbed why Rahul Gandhi deliberately chose Morigaon district where the 1983 Nellie massacre took place. He should have avoided Morigaon and Jagiroad because of the Nellie massacre.... From the law-and-order point of view, it should have been avoided. I would have been happy.”

A large number of Bengali-speaking Muslims were killed during the Nellie massacre.

Sarma made two requests of Rahul. “If you can avoid Morigaon, Nagaon and Jagiroad tomorrow, it will be good. They could have taken rest for one day. And don’t pitch Batadrava in competition with the Ram temple because I have crosschecked that the Batadrava Satra Samiti has not invited him.

“I saw a news (item) in the national media yesterday that while Modi will do Pran Pratistha in the Ram temple, Rahul Gandhi will be at the birthplace of Sankardeva. It is a wrong analogy because no one has invited him. He wants to go on his own.”

Soon after his media interaction, the Sri Sri Batadrava Than Parichalana Samiti said Rahul could visit after 3pm.

In a letter to the local MLA, the Samiti said it had decided at an emergency meeting to welcome Rahul but there was a possibility of a large number of devotees turning up at the Than on the occasion of the Ram temple consecration. Keeping that in mind, the Samiti told the MLA that it would not be able to allow Rahul’s visit before 3pm.

A Congress leader told The Telegraph that Rahul would go to the Than at 7am on Monday, as decided, to pay his homage to the 15th-century saint-reformer-playwright Sankardeva.

Asked about the Samiti statement that Rahul should come after 3pm, she said no permission was required to visit a temple or any place of worship. She added that the Congress had informed the administration about the visit well in advance.

Rahul’s visit to Bordowa Than is significant, a Congress leader said, as it would “send” a message to the Hindutva brigade considering it’s a pilgrimage site like Ayodhya.

“It is at Bordowa that Sankardeva founded and propagated Ekasarana Dharma, which stresses devotion to a single God and rejects the caste system and societal hierarchies,” the leader said.

She said that whether or not Rahul visited the Than, the BJP would make an issue out of it.

“They will say Rahul Gandhi did not visit the Than despite passing through Nagaon. Rahulji will be visiting in the morning; that is final,” she said.

The attack on Borah seemed to have galvanised the 15-party United Opposition Forum in Assam, which includes the Congress.

On Sunday night, the Forum said all leaders of the alliance would address a media meeting on the attack on Borah, indicating that Sunday’s developments were likely to have an impact on Monday.

Sarma has asked meat and fish shops to remain shut till 4pm on Monday, restaurants not to serve non-vegetarian food till 2.30pm, and government educational institutions to remain closed through the day, triggering much debate.

He has also requested business establishments to remain closed till 2.30pm on Monday and churches and mosques to hold special prayers. A dry day has been declared.

Bengal campaign

On Sunday, the Congress launched a campaign in the districts of Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and North Dinajpur, inviting people to join the yatra that is slated to enter Bengal on January 25.