The Assam Congress staged a protest in front of Rajiv Bhawan here on Friday against chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass for calling Congress president Rahul Gandhi “beimaan” (dishonest).

Nearly 100 Congress members gathered and burned effigies of Sonowal and Dass for their derogatory comments against Rahul. The protesters included senior leaders Sarat Borkataky, Rakibul Hussain, Akon Bora, Ranjan Bora and Abdul Khaleq.

Hussain said, “There is lack of sense in the BJP. They failed to show good results in the panchayat polls. Now they want to divert all debate about their performance through derogatory comments. People have started understanding the relevance of the BJP government. They are under tremendous pressure because they know they will lose in the upcoming polls. That is the real reason behind this attack on Rahul.”

Sonowal and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday attacked Rahul after he tweeted that his party had managed to wake up the Assam and Gujarat chief ministers to waive off farm loan and will rouse a sleeping Prime Minister Narendra Modi too.

During a protest on Wednesday, Dass had tagged Rahul as a “nonsense” parliamentarian.

After the protest, AICC secretary Pradyut Bordoloi said Sonowal had described the Congress as a beimaan party during a news conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

“We strongly condemn Sonowal’s comment. Such an unparliamentary word does not fit a chief minister. Who is beimaan? Sonowal may have forgotten the contribution of the Congress before and after Independence,” Bordoloi said.

“If Sonowal re-examines the statistics, he will find out that Sarma is directly linked to the Sarada and Louis Berger scams. The chief minister started his career as a students’ union leader, then

shifted to the Asom Gana Parishad and again to the BJP mainly to empower his political career. Dear chief minister, you have to think before commenting who is beimaan!” Bordoloi said.

He said the Congress always works for the people of the country whereas the BJP’s main agenda is to empower the capitalists of the country.

Hussain said, “The Modi government had promised so many things before the election but failed to fulfill those. Now the BJP-led government in the state has waived off farmers’ loan but increased the electricity bill. They had promised to lower the prices of LPG cylinder but in the real scenario nothing has changed.”