‘Bangladeshi’ poll plank will fail in Assam just as it did in Jharkhand: Gaurav Gogoi

Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday (August 26, 2025) said that the ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ plank of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma would fail to work for the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2026 Assembly elections just as it did in Jharkhand in 2024.

The BJP ran an unsuccessful high-decibel campaign of “love jihad” and “land jihad” in Jharkhand by claiming that Bangladeshi “infiltrators” were marrying tribal women and taking over tribal lands. Mr. Sarma was one of the key campaigners of the party.

“The BJP has been in power in Assam for nearly 10 years, and if Bangladeshi people are still coming in, who is responsible? It is the duty of the Central and State governments to stop infiltration,” Mr. Gogoi stated in eastern Assam’s Majuli, asserting that the Congress was clear about not letting any Bangladeshi stay in Assam illegally.

“The Assam Chief Minister’s politics on infiltration will fail here, just as it did in Jharkhand,” he said.

The ‘Bangladeshi’ issue has been a poll plank in every election in Assam since the 1970s. It gained traction after the Assam government launched a drive in June to clear encroachers from forest lands, designated grazing lands, and government revenue lands.

A majority of more than 55,000 people evicted so far are Bengali-speaking Muslims, who have been labelled as “Bangladeshis”, “strangers”, and “illegal immigrants”.

‘People want Sarma jailed’

Mr. Gogoi’s criticism of the BJP-led government’s inability to check the influx follows a political row triggered by former Planning Commission member Syeda Saiyidain Hameed’s recent observation that there is enough space to let Bangladeshi people live in India.

The State Congress president, who represents the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency, also said the people of Assam would like to see Mr. Sarma in jail, and not as the Chief Minister for another term.

“The Chief Minister spared no one in his greed to accumulate property in the name of his family. They have made people from all communities homeless by bulldozing their houses,” Mr. Gogoi said, asserting that the widespread displacement has led to a steady decline in the government’s popularity.

“In the coming days, the people of Assam will want to see Himanta Biswa Sarma behind bars for injustice and misuse of power,” he said.

He said the Assam government’s eviction drives have affected Bengalis, tribals, Scheduled Castes, and Other Backward Castes, apart from the Muslims.