Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi.
Credit: X/@GauravGogoiAsm
New Delhi: With Assam getting ready for holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday said the party has started training around 29,000 Booth Level Agents (BLAs) and is in the process of recruiting more to check alleged voter list manipulation.
Gogoi, also the Congress Lok Sabha Deputy Leader, said the Congress is also preparing its legal team to help BLAs to file claims and objections at a later stage. He said the party has already registered 28,880 BLAs and is in the process of appointing more across the state.
"We have started a training programme for the BLAs. We concluded the first round of training for master trains two days ago. By August-end, we will hold a week-long training programme in 35 districts. In the first module, we are briefing them on how voter list manipulation has been undertaken in Maharashtra and in Karnataka. We will share the evidence that Rahul Gandhi’s team has provided," he said.
He said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul has consistently reminded them that all election-going states must work extra hard to ensure that there is no fraud in the voter list.
Gogoi is of the view that the SIR exercise in Assam is difficult because of the demographic complexities while accusing the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP government of further complicating it.
He alleged that the state government is not willing to address the issue of foreigners. He also claimed that the state government has issued guidelines by which Bengali-speaking people have to give a written affidavit that they are from Bangladesh to apply for citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act and creating injustice for people who are actually of Indian origin.
"The Prime Minister himself gave a lot of promises. He said in 2016 after their party came to power in the state that all people who have entered India illegally from Bangladesh would be deported. But, the Chief Minister himself now says that he is unable to address this issue. Instead of deporting people who have entered illegally, he is now distributing arms licences," he told DH.
"Instead of making Assam safe and secure, he is absorbing himself of responsibility and wants to distribute guns to the people of Assam. People of Assam don't want guns. They want the BJP to fulfill the promises that were made to them over the past 10 years. They have not fulfilled the NRC," he said.