'Sleepless nights for Cong...', Assam CM on Priyank Kharge questioning state's ecosystem for semiconductor plants

Guwahati, Oct 1 (IANS) Hitting out at Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge for questioning Assam's ecosystem for semiconductor plants, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said his state has given sleepless nights to the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government over the thoughts of Assam getting a semiconductor manufacturing facility. 

"Nobody could anticipate how a small state like Assam could get a semiconductor manufacturing hub in the country. This has given sleepless nights to the Congress-ruled Karnataka government. The southern state on every index is ahead of Assam; however, now they are talking about us. This has given me immense pleasure," Sarma said.

He further asserted that Assam will not stop here, and the state will touch the sky in terms of development.

"We will not stop only at the semiconductor plant. Assam will touch the sky in the next few years. It will not require a long time when our state will be in the front row in the whole nation," CM Sarma said.

He also took a swipe at Congress leaders in the state by saying: "I want to advise the opposition leaders to feel proud about their own state."

Meanwhile, the people in the Jagiroad Assembly constituency took out a protest rally on Tuesday demanding an unconditional apology from Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge.

Notably, the semiconductor manufacturing unit is coming up in Jagiroad which is the home constituency of Assam Cabinet Minister, Pijush Hazarika.

"Priyank Kharge, who is the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge humiliated the people of Assam by saying that we do not have an ecosystem for having a semiconductor manufacturing unit. This is a huge insult for our people. They should issue an immediate apology to the Assamese people," Hazarika said.

To recall, Priyank Kharge had posted on his social media: "Five semicon manufacturing units, four are in Gujarat, and one is in Assam, but they don't have an ecosystem of skills there. They don't have an ecosystem of research there. They don't have an ecosystem of incubation. They don't have a system of ecosystem of innovations… when 70 per cent of the chip designing talent lies in Karnataka, I don't understand why the government wants to push to another state by using political clout. That is unfair."