BJP candidate from southern Assam faces ‘Bangladeshi’ barb ahead of April 9 poll

Bijoy Malakar, a two-time MLA and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate from the Ram Krishna Nagar constituency in southern Assam, is battling the ‘Bangladeshi’ tag ahead of the Assembly election.

Suruchi Roy, his Congress rival, has indicated that the April 9 election would be a fight between a bhumikanya (daughter of the soil) and a person of doubtful citizenship.

“A case against the BJP candidate is pending in the Gauhati High Court. He has not been able to submit documents (to prove he is Indian),” she said after filing her nomination papers in Sribhumi district on Friday (March 20, 2026).

Sribhumi is one of three districts in the Bengali-dominated Barak Valley, which has 13 Assembly constituencies.

Mr. Malakar, who won the constituency twice in its earlier avatar as Ratabari before the 2023 delimitation exercise, rubbished her allegation. “Opponents hurl the Bangladeshi charge before every election and try to rattle me. Labelling Bengali Hindus as Bangladeshis is easy in Assam, because they have been soft targets,” he said.

Mr. Malakar said his Indian citizenship is beyond doubt, adding that four of his father’s brothers were government employees. “Since the case is in court, it is for the judges to decide,” he said.

In December 2025, two persons from Barak Valley—Braja Gopal Sinha and Bijoy Kumar Kanu—filed a writ petition in the Gauhati High Court, claiming that Mr. Malakar is not an Indian citizen. They claimed their information was from “authentic sources”.

“The respondent No 1 (Mr. Malakar) and his parents entered India (Assam) after the cut-off date, 25th March 1971. The petitioners have collected all the voters’ lists including the voters’ lists of 1966 and 1971 of Karimganj Town and on verification of the voters’ lists, the petitioners found that the name of the respondent No 1 was first enrolled in the supplementary list of 2005 at serial No 318, part No 96, Karimganj North Assembly constituency under House No 15 of main voters list of 2005, without any basis,” the synopsis of the petition read.

The petitioners claimed that the MLA’s father was listed as Shankar Malakar in the 2005 voters’ list, but his photograph matched that of an individual named Sudhanya Kumar Malakar in documents issued in Bangladesh in 2020.

Another BJP legislator, Nihar Ranjan Das, faced a similar allegation while contesting the Dholai Assembly seat in 2021. Amiya Kanti Das, who replaced him this time, had accused him of being a Bangladeshi.