BJP filed 5 lakh complaints to delete ‘foreigners’ from Assam voter rolls: Sarma

GUwahati: Assam chief government minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on midweek that workers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata company (BJP) feature filed o'er five lakh complaints with the Election Commission (EC) seeking deletion of the names of suspected foreigners from the electoral rolls during the ongoing special revision (SR) process.“Our stand against illegal foreigners is very clear. That’s why our workers have filed more than 500,000 complaints (during the SR process seeking deletion of names of suspected illegal foreigners). Or else everyone (of them) would have become swadeshis (citizens),” Sarma said on the sidelines of an event at Demow in Sivasagar district.Targeting the Bengali-speaking Muslim community of Assam, Sarma had said on Tuesday, “As per rules, Miyas (the non-indigenous Muslims) should not get to vote here; they should cast their ballots in Bangladesh. To ensure that they don’t get to vote in Assam, we have taken certain measures.”“Recently I was in Duliajan, where people complained that the number of Bangladeshi Miyas has increased significantly there and in areas like Margherita. You have already witnessed the evictions (of suspected foreigners from government lands) carried out in Golaghat and Sarupathar,” he said.“The areas of Upper Assam were secure till five years ago. But now we see that these areas are no longer as safe (from them). I was going through records of land sale and purchase applications in Tinsukia recently and noticed that ‘unknown people’ are buying more land and Hindus are selling their plots,” Sarma added.As per the Assam Accord of 1985 and the Citizenship Act, any person who entered Assam after March 24, 1971—the day Bangladesh was formed—would be deemed an illegal immigrant.“We all know that Bangladeshi Miyas are in Assam. But if none of them get notices during the special revision (SR) process of electoral rolls, what will it mean? It would suggest that there are no illegal foreigners in Assam,” he said.“That’s why BJP workers have filed complaints against those they suspect to be illegal foreigners. It is for the EC to take a decision on them (the complaints). But if we don’t file a single complaint, it would suggest that there are no illegal foreigners in Assam,” the CM added.The EC published the draft electoral rolls on December 27, listing 25.1 million electors in the state. It added that during door-to-door verification, 478,992 electors were found to have died, 523,680 had shifted, and 53,619 were found to have multiple entries. The period for filing claims and objections ended on January 22. These will be disposed of by February 2, and the final rolls will be published on February 10.The Election Commission is carrying out an SR and not a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) because the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC)—an initiative unique to the state to weed out illegal foreigners—is not yet complete.Elections are expected to be held in March–April.Sarma added that filing complaints during the SR process was the duty of the Assamese race, and not just the BJP, but other parties and organisations did not file complaints.On Sunday, several opposition parties in Assam, including the Congress, alleged gross anomalies, unlawful interference and arbitrary bulk notices during the ongoing SR of electoral rolls ahead of the assembly polls, and urged the EC to act.Leaders of the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad and CPI(M), who are planning to contest the polls as an alliance against the ruling BJP and its allies, submitted a memorandum to the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Assam, stating that the EC’s “immediate intervention and action” were necessary to ensure that the SR exercise is “free and fair” and that the names of genuine voters are not left out of the final electoral rolls.“In order to ensure that they stay in power, the BJP is even trying to manipulate the voters’ list during the SR process, which is being undertaken by the EC,” Lok Sabha lawmaker and Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi said.