'Rahul Gandhi looks like Saddam Hussein': Himanta Biswa Sarma

Sarma denied that this comparison with the deposed Iraqi dictator was a communal spin.

"I only said he looks like Saddam Hussein. I didn't say anything else," he said in an interview with NDTV.

Last month, when Sarma first made the "looks like Saddam Hussein" jibe, he said it'd be better if Rahul Gandhi could appear more look Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi.

Sarma also denied there was any ideological shift when he left the Congress for the BJP and insisted that he had "wasted 22 years of my life in the Congress" until he resigned in 2015.

"In the Congress, we used to worship a family. In BJP, we worship the country," he claimed.

Once a Congress minister in Assam, Sarma shifted his loyalty to BJP and is now Chief Minister of the eastern state.