The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday alleged that Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi’s wife has connections with Pakistan and its intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence.

Gogoi, however, said that he “trusts the conscience of the public”, The Indian Express reported. “If my wife is a Pakistan agent, I am an Indian agent and India will win,” he asserted.

Gogoi’s wife, Elizabeth Coleburn, is a British citizen and works in the field of climate policy. BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia alleged on Wednesday that she has links with Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, an advisor to Pakistan’s Planning Commission.

“Very serious and disturbing facts have emerged that the wife of Deputy Leader of Opposition Gaurav Gogoi has links with Pakistan and the ISI,” he alleged.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in an indirect reference to Coleburn, questioned how the spouse of an Indian lawmaker could be allowed to retain foreign citizenship for 12 years, even as he acknowledged that there was no law against it. “Loyalty to the nation must always take precedence over all other considerations,” he said.

Later on Wednesday, Sarma continued his allegations, saying that “serious questions need to be answered regarding allegations of Inter-Services Intelligence links, leading young individuals to the Pakistan Embassy for brainwashing and radicalisation, and the refusal to take Indian citizenship for the past 12 years”.

The Assam chief minister claimed that Coleburn, before marrying Gogoi, had “worked for an American senator known for close ties with the Pakistani establishment and later spent time in Pakistan, employed by an organization widely believed to be a front for the Inter-Services Intelligence”.

Gogoi, however, claimed that Sarma was making the allegations as he feared being defeated in the Assam Assembly elections slated to be held early next year, The Indian Express reported.

“Normally these kinds of things emerge close to elections,” he said. “Last time when I was contesting for the Jorhat Lok Sabha seat, these questions started coming about a month before elections.”

The Congress leader said the chief minister’s wife Rinki Bhuyan Sarma owns a media network that includes TV channels and digital outlets. “My wife does not own her own channel where we can break this disinformation,” he said. “We don’t have our own portal. It’s okay; we leave it to the conscience of the people.”