Story of those 12 fascinating months: Himanta on last few days in Congress

Assam Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma shared an interview by Ghulam Nabi Azad in which he spoke about how had intervened when Sarma was about to quit the party.

While Azad's attempts did not succeed, Sarma remained in the party for another 12 months. "The story of those 12 months is quite fascinating. I ultimately left the Congress party in August 2015," Sarma said in a tweet.

In the interview with Mojo, Azad said that he was called in to step in when Himanta had declared rebellion with the support of 40-45 MLAs. "I was told to manage the situation as Himanta was close to me. The then governor, J B Patnaik was also close to him. I did both faithfully," Azad said in the interview.

"I also called Himanta to Delhi with all his supporters in different planes. The then-chief minister was also told to come to Delhi. We took stock of the satiation and evidently it was Himanta who had more support. I briefed Mrs Gandhi about the developments but she did not tell us to consult with Rahul Gandhi," Azad also said in the interview.

Azad further added, "before we were going to Assam, I got a call from Rahul Gandhi and he asked me whether we were going to Assam to change the CM. He said we can't go and called us. At that time, he was not the party president."

"As I visited Rahul Gandhi, I saw he was having tea with Tarun Gogoi, who was the chief minister of Assam at that time. Rahul Gandhi told me that he was given to understand that we were irritating Tarun Gogoi. I told him that I was given this task," Azad further added.

When I told Rahul Gandhi that Himanta was leaving the party, he told me, " let him go to RSS. Every time a Congress leader spoke about leaving, it was Rahul Gandhi who said let them go. He would never say, BJP. He always said RSS."

Azad has been critical of the party and once again ahead of his memoir, "Azaad" he criticised the party while praising the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.