cong-used-tea-tribes-as-vote-bank-harvested-every-5-years-nadda

Union Minister J P Nadda on Monday accused the Congress of treating Assam’s tea tribes as a “vote-bank” that it “harvested” every five years while neglecting their welfare.

Addressing a rally in support of BJP’s Doomdooma candidate Rupesh Gowala, Nadda claimed the Congress had also “rolled out the red carpet for infiltrators” during its rule in the northeastern state.

“The Congress treated the tea tribes as a vote bank to be harvested every five years. It pushed the future of the community into darkness,” he said.

The Union Minister alleged that the Congress “invited infiltrators into Assam, and sheltered them here, providing them with Aadhaar and Ayushman Bharat cards for appeasement politics”.

“These people are grabbing the land of the Adivasis and the poor,” Nadda said, asserting that the BJP would reclaim this land and drive out illegal immigrants.

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“Their names are being deleted from the voter list, and those remaining will also be struck off,” he added, lauding the tea tribes for their “stance against infiltrators”.

“I salute the people of the tea tribes for not allowing the infiltrators to settle here, thereby saving the future of Bharat Mata,” he said. Nadda also criticised the Congress for the “violence, killings, strikes, unrest and curfew” during its tenures in Assam, while asserting that the BJP-led government had ensured peace, stability and development over the past decade.

Highlighting welfare measures in the state, he promised that the BJP-led NDA would expand these initiatives once returned to power. The Union Health Minister urged voters to support the alliance in the April 9 elections.

Tea Tribes in Assam are descendants of labourers brought to the region during the colonial period from present-day Jharkhand, Odisha and Bihar tribal belts in the nineteenth century. They form a majority in this eastern Assam constituency, which Nadda described as key to safeguarding the region from illegal settlement and protecting its cultural and economic interests.