Amid Bihu celebrations in Assam, a viral video has been in the spotlight in which Assam BJP chief Dilip Saikia was seen criticising Jayanta Malla Baruah, a minister from the BJP and an aide of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at a party event in Nalbari on Tuesday.
The Congress used the video to launch a fresh attack on the BJP over the comments by Mr Saikia, who is also a Lok Sabha MP.
The video taken during the inauguration of a BJP office in Nalbari's Bahjani showed Mr Saikia pacing towards Malla Baruah, who is also the MLA of Nalbari, and shouting at him.
Mr Sarma can be seen standing next to Mr Baruah, while Mr Saikia looked agitated. It is however difficult to hear what Mr Saikia was shouting about.
The chief minister was also seen moving away from the place with the minister.
The Assam BJP said it was an internal matter of the party. Party sources said Mr Saikia was apparently angry after he was not able to enter the venue while Mr Sarma, Mr Baruah and the mandal president were inside.
"Yesterday, the government implemented a historical decision based on the Assamese language and the language was made mandatory for all government notifications and orders. But for the media it was not an important story, only the viral video was. So, this shows the mentality of the people who make videos viral... Negative things are in their mind and the media also looks for negative things," Mr Sarma said on Wednesday.
Mr Saikia said he found some discipline-related issues, and as the state head of the BJP family, he had to intervene.
"I shouted to correct the mistake as the head of the family. It happens in every family, and there are no differences. We are together and discipline is most important," Mr Saikia said.
Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah called the altercation a display of the cracks between "RSS-loyalists" in the BJP and the "new guard" of the party.
Mr Saikia, the MP from Darrang-Udalguri, was made state BJP president earlier this year. He has grown within the RSS and the BJP for nearly four decades.
Many of the BJP's prominent faces in Assam, including Mr Sarma and Mr Baruah, are relatively recent imports into the party in the last decade - both from the Congress.
"Just see how the chief minister who likes to show his courage and manliness by locking up ordinary people, journalists and Congress spokesmen, demurred in front of the BJP state president... It was nice to see you lose your voice. You have always considered your chair more important than your self-respect. Here is the latest evidence," Mr Borah wrote on X.
