Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday that only Miyas, and not Hindus or Assamese Muslims, were being served notices under the special revision of electoral rolls in the state, reported PTI.
“There is no controversy over the special revision,” the chief minister was quoted as saying by the news agency. “Which Hindu has got notice? Which Assamese Muslim has got notice? Notices have been served to Miyas and such people, else they will walk over our heads.”
“Miya” is a derogatory term for Bengali-speaking Muslims. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam has often labelled the community as “infiltrators” who are allegedly taking over resources, jobs and land of the indigenous people.
On December 27, the Election Commission said that the names of more than 10 lakh voters were identified to be deleted in Assam after a house-to-house verification process under the ‘special revision’ exercise. The final list will be published on February 10.
Unlike in 12 states and Union Territories, the Election Commission is not conducting a special intensive revision exercise in Assam. Instead, on November 17, it had directed the state chief electoral officer to conduct a “special revision” of electoral rolls.
The door-to-door verification took place in the state between November 22 and December 20. The process did not involve document verification, unlike the special intensive revision.
Assembly elections are expected to be held in March-April.
Several Opposition parties have accused the BJP of conspiring to delete the names of a large number of genuine voters from the state’s electoral rolls amid the exercise and filed police complaints.
On Saturday, Sarma said that there was “nothing to hide”, reported PTI.
“We are giving them trouble,” said the chief minister, referring to his earlier statements that Miyas would face problems in his regime, according to the news agency.
He added that serving them notices as part of the special revision exercise was a way to “keep them under pressure”.
“They have to understand that at some level, people of Assam are resisting them,” said the BJP leader. “Otherwise, they will get a walkover. That is why some will get notices during SR, some for eviction, some from border police.”
Sarma added: “We will do some utpaat [mischief], but within the ambit of law… we are with the poor and downtrodden, but not those who want to destroy our jati [community].”
This came a day after the Assam Congress and Raijor Dal chief Akhil Gogoi filed separate complaints with the police against the BJP for allegedly attempting to tamper with voter lists in the Boko-Chhaygaon Assembly constituency.
In a complaint filed at the Boko Police Station on Friday, Boko Block Congress Committee chief Tuleswar Rabha claimed that BJP leaders, along with a few locals and office staff, entered the election branch of the Boko co-district commissioner’s office in the evening a day earlier.
He alleged that the group attempted to access the electoral roll revision portal using a government password to delete and include names using data from Form 7.
Form 7 of the Election Commission is the official application used to object to the inclusion of a name or to request the deletion of a name from an existing electoral roll.
In his complaint in Jorhat, Gogoi said that he had received video footage a day earlier showing four persons “unlawfully entering and operating inside the Boko co-district commissioner’s office, Kamrup (Rural), Assam”.
He added that the video footage showed the four persons “unauthorisedly accessing” official documents and electronic databases.
“As such, there may be every possibility to illegally adding fictitious voters’ names and deleting names of genuine voters, without any lawful authority,” the Sivasagar MLA said.
On January 7, the Congress, the Raijor Dal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and the Assam Jatiya Parishad also filed a police complaint, accusing Assam BJP president and MP Dilip Saikia of being involved in an alleged conspiracy to delete the names of a large number of genuine voters from the state’s electoral rolls.
The parties claimed that Saikia had directed the Hindutva party MLAs to ensure the deletion of the names of “anti-BJP voters” in at least 60 of the state’s 126 Assembly constituencies.
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