A day before boxer Lovlina Borgohain made the country proud by winning a bronze at the Tokyo Games 2020, Biocon Biologics chairperson and founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw took to Twitter to share an image of how Assam wished Lovlina when she qualified.
"Indian Boxer *Lovlina Borgohain* has entered Semi Finals ensuring an Olympic medal for India, the only question now is the color of the medal. For those who want to know *how she looks like*, here are some of the *billboards on display in Guwahati*!" Shaw tweeted along with a photo of two posters, which carried congratulatory messages for Lovlina for qualifying for the Olympics, but had images of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Chief Minister of Assam, and the state Sports Minister Bimal Bora.
Lovlina Borgohain, who hails from Assam, on Wednesday won a bronze medal after losing to Busenaz Surmeneli in the semi-final. The posters, shared by Shaw had appeared a week ago with several netizens wondering why the BJP leaders chose to promote Lovlina's Olympic qualification with their own photos.
One user replied to Shaw saying that the posters were taken down, to which she retorted "Why were they there in the first place?". Assam is a BJP-ruled state and this is the first time that the Biocon chief took on the government in this way.
DH could not independently verify whether the posters have been taken down now. However, the backlash may have triggered the state government to change its strategy as several posters in the state now carry Lovlina's image as the feature photo.
When the images of the posters first went viral, users left witty, sarcastic replies with some saying "Out of these two who is Lovlina?"
Another user wrote on Twitter, "Lovlina looks different here. Maybe it's the lighting. "