Congress is a dukaan of false promises: PM Modi in poll-bound Assam

The PM's attack on Congress came amid reports that United People's Party Liberal is trying to forge an alliance with Congress for the Assembly elections.

Guwahati: Targeting Congress ahead of Assembly elections in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday charged that the Opposition party is a dukaan (shop) of false promises.

"People across Assam including Bodoland have gone through a lot of difficult times and suffered due to long conflict. Congress kept people of Bodoland engrossed in false promises. Assam and Bodoland has witnessed betrayal of Congress for decades," PM Modi said while virtually inaugurating and laying foundations for projects worth Rs 4,500 crores, including Rs 1,100 crores for improvement of roads for Bodoland region.

"They signed agreements just for show. Congress is a shop of false promises. But since people of Assam ousted Congress and chose us, the double engine government of NDA has been relentlessly trying to protect Assam's heritage as well as script new chapters of development."

PM Modi was scheduled to address a public meeting in Kokrajhar, headquarters of Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR) comprising five districts, close to the border with Bhutan. But he had to cancel the trip due to bad weather and addressed the meeting virtually from the state capital Guwahati, about 200 km away.

He said that Bodoland, which witnessed long problem of militancy, was brought back to the path of peace and development with the signing of two peace accords: one in 2003 and another in 2020, both during NDA's tenure at the Centre. "Work on railway connectivity between Kokrajhar and Bhutan has started. Both Vande Bharat Express and Rajdhani Express now has stoppages at Kokrajhar while railway and road connectivity has also been revamped. This will turn Kokrajhar into a trade hub."

Fulfilling promises

PM Modi said NDA has been constantly trying to implement the promises it made in the Bodoland Accords. "Be it according associate official language status to Bodo language or special package of Rs 1,500 crores for development of Bodoland, the NDA government has fulfilled many more promises. A medical college in operational in Kokrajhar, another is being constructed in Tamulpur, while nearly 10,000 youths who had given up weapons are being re-integrated to the mainstream of the society."

He alleged that Congress government did not gave land to the indigenous communities and the Adivasis whereas it handed over land to the infiltrators. "Now Himanta Biswa Sarma government is clearing the land from the hands of the infiltrators and giving land patta to the indigenous communities. I want to appeal to you today to give the Congress party harshest punishment in the next elections."

Politics in Bodoland

The PM's attack on Congress came amid reports that United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), BJP's ally in the state as well as at the Centre, is trying to forge an alliance with Congress for the Assembly elections. UPPL, according to sources, held talks with Congress after BJP literally dumped it and finalised seat sharing with its rival, Bodoland People's Front (BPF). The BPF is at present in the power of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC).

Bodoland region has 15 Assembly seats (out of total 136) and BJP and BPF recently finalised seat sharing for the Assembly elections. BJP, however, sidelined UPPL, which lost the BTC polls in September last year to BPF. This has upset the UPPL.

BJP had similarly dumped BPF and joined hands with UPPL soon after signing the new Bodoland Accord in 2020. Congress, although is not strong in BTR, the UPPL has a strong organisational base.