Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma (L) and Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi.
Credit: PTI Photo
Guwahati: The Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls, being carried out by the Election Commission, seems to have turned into a tool of political slugfest between the ruling BJP and the Congress-led opposition alliance in Assam in the run up to Assembly elections slated in March-April.
The process, which began in November with January 1, 2026 as the qualifying date, has sparked a controversy with the opposition parties repeatedly raising allegations of its misuse by the BJP to remove those who do not vote for the saffron party. BJP initially rubbished the allegations but Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday (January 27) was blunt when he admitted that the party was trying to "steal votes of the Miyas."
"There is nothing to hide. I have asked the BJP workers to file objections for removal of names of the 'Miyas'. I held video conference and issued instructions," Sarma said. The CM said that four to five lakh objections have been filed by BJP workers. "Our targets are the Miyas, others have nothing to worry."
BJP and some local organisations use the term Miya to refer to the Bengali-speaking Muslims, whom the party considers as "ghuspethias or infiltrators." Like in several elections in the past, BJP in Assam has been constantly trying to project it as "saviour" of the indigenous communities and has been targeting the Bengali-speaking Muslims to corner the Opposition.
The Bengali-speaking Muslims, comprising about over 30 per cent of Assam's population, in fact, became the target of "push back" of "foreigners" into Bangladesh and the eviction drives carried out in forests and other government land in the past few months. By intensifying their drive against the Bengali-speaking Muslims, the BJP, according to observers, is trying to polarise the voters on ethno-religious lines and protect its vote bank among the indigenous communities, Hindus and the Assamese-speaking Muslims. "Assam is a polarised state. We have to practice polarisation politics for 30 years, if we want to survive. If you want to surrender, surrender. But as an Assamese, I don't want to surrender," Sarma said on Thursday.
"Our polarisation is not Hindu-Muslim polarisation. Our fight is against the 'Miyas', we have no problem with the Assamese-speaking Muslims," Sarma further said.
In a letter to Election Commission, Congress-led Opposition alliance, on January 27 alleged that BJP workers are not allowing many genuine voters, including victims of the ongoing evictions (Bengali-speaking Muslims) to submit claims against the objections filed by workers of the ruling party.
Pointing to CM Sarma's statements, Debabrata Saikia, the leader of the Opposition and Congress MLA, in a letter to Chief Justice of India on Wednesday (January 28) said, "Such statements amount to an open confession that the Special Revision of electoral rolls and the use of Form-7 are being employed
not for their lawful purpose, but as instruments of intimidation, harassment and targeted disenfranchisement of a particular community. This directly undermines the independence of the Election Commission of India, politicises the electoral process, and violates the constitutional guarantees of equality, fraternity, secularism and non-discrimination."
Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi alleged that it was part of BJP's country-wide strategy of "bhot chori" in order to win elections. "BJP knows that their defeat in Assam is sure. So they are trying to remove the genuine voters on communal lines and trying to include names of outside voters from states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh to win the elections."
CM, Sarma, however, claims that BJP's victory is "100 per cent sure" as the majority indigenous people would vote for them in order to "save Assam from demographic invasion by the 'Miyas'.