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Informist, Tuesday, Apr. 7, 2026

 

NEW DELHI – The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and principal opposition Indian National Congress are locked in a bitter battle of words in Assam as the state prepares to vote for its 126-member legislative assembly Thursday. About 25 million voters are expected to exercise their franchise across 31,486 polling stations.

 

The BJP has been ruling Assam for the past 10 years, before which the Congress ruled the state for 15 years. While the Congress has been focusing on various welfare schemes for the common people, the BJP has been raking up polarising issues of illegal immigrants, alleged "love jihad" and "land jihad", and Assam's cultural nationalism.

 

The Congress manifesto lists 28 commitments, including five guarantees announced by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. These include a monthly cash stipend and financial support of INR 50,000 for women to start small businesses, land rights for one million indigenous people, INR 2.5 million cashless health cover for every family, and justice for the late singer Zubeen Garg "within 100 days".

 

Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi said the manifesto had been prepared on the basis of inputs from the people of Assam. "It is not just a list of promises, it sets out practical and realistic plans for genuine transformation," he said.

 

The BJP manifesto, which promises 200,000 "additional" government jobs and welfare schemes such as INR 25,000 financial assistance to eligible women, land rights to tea garden workers, and free school education and free ration to the poor, also underlines that the party will "continue the pushback policy against illegal immigrants", take "firm measures against love jihad and land jihad", and free "every inch of land" from encroachment by illegal immigrants. It carries the slogan "Surakshita Asom, Bikashita Asom" (Safe Assam, Developed Assam).

 

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has campaigned extensively in the state and vowed to take action against "infiltrators". "We will not allow Assam to become an infiltrator-dominated region," Shah said at a public rally in Assam's Patharkandi.

 

Claiming that the infiltrators had already been identified, Shah said the next step would be to take strict action. "Elect a BJP government," he said. "We have already identified the infiltrators. Now, the time has come to weed them out, one by one." He also accused the Congress of indulging in "vote bank politics" and appeasement.  End

 

Reported by Asim Khan

Edited by Rajeev Pai

 

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