Social media users lashed out at Assam BJP MLA Sibu Misra after a video of him taking a piggyback ride to a flood rescue boat surfaced online Thursday.
Misra, who represents the Lumding constituency in the Hojai district, had visited the flood-affected areas in his constituency. Hojai in central Assam is one of the worst-affected districts in the current wave of the pre-monsoon floods that has ravaged the state.
#WATCH | Assam: BJP MLA from Lumding Assembly, Sibu Misra was seen taking a piggyback ride to a boat, on the back of a flood rescue worker yesterday, May 18th. He was in Hojai to review the flood situation in the area. pic.twitter.com/Rq0mJ8msxt
— ANI (@ANI) May 19, 2022
In the video, Misra can be seen on the back of a man, identified as a journalist from the area, as the latter took him to safety of a rescue boat through ankle-deep water. The Assam Congress and the All India Trinamool Congress took potshots at Misra. The AITC said, “The water is so deep that the @BJP4Assam MLA just CANNOT walk this short distance! He needs special attention and rightly so! When nearly 6.62 lakh people are suffering across the state, all attention and care must be directed towards BJP MLAs!”
The Congress also took a jibe at Misra saying his shoes were “too costly to step on mud”.
My SHOEs are too costly to step on mud!! I’ll rather ride on a Reporter.
– Sibu Misra, BJP MLA pic.twitter.com/mae6zTmZGo
— Assam Congress (@INCAssam) May 19, 2022
Speaking to The Indian Express, Misra said he was not well and the reporter whom he knew had offered to help. “I did not realise the media would make it such a big issue,” said Misra. “I am a two-time MLA, they know me, know my work. It’s my misfortune that something like this happened.”
As the rains continue to batter Assam and parts of the Northeast, more than six lakh people across 27 districts in the state have been displaced. On Wednesday, the death toll rose to nine, with one person drowning in the floodwaters in the Darrang district, a bulletin from the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said.
