Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, ahead of the upcoming state Assembly elections, said on Tuesday that the Congress party is shaping its electoral strategy around constituencies dominated by what he described as “Bangladeshi-origin Muslims”.
The Chief Minister claimed that the seats being contested by the Congress under alliance arrangements are largely those with a significant population of Muslims of alleged Bangladeshi origin. According to him, this indicates a departure from the interests of Assam’s indigenous communities.
“If you notice the seats that Congress is fighting in alliance, they are mostly those that belong to Bangladeshi-origin Muslims. The people of Assam must understand that Congress is not standing with the indigenous people of the state. It is evident as we move closer to the Assembly elections,” Sarma said.
He also referred to the reported political contest between the Congress and the regional party Raijor Dal, led by Akhil Gogoi, claiming that this competition too is concentrated in similar constituencies.
“From the very first day, I have been saying that Congress is not with Assam or its indigenous people. It would have been different if the fight had been over seats like Jorhat or Dibrugarh. But Congress has mortgaged its soul to people of Bangladeshi-origin Muslims and will contest from there and run its politics from there,” Sarma alleged.
The Congress party has not yet issued a response to the Chief Minister’s remarks.
The comments come amid intensifying political rhetoric in the run-up to the Assembly polls, with issues such as identity, migration, and indigenous rights expected to remain central to the campaign narrative in Assam.
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