Oppn files ‘vote chori’ plaint; BJP hits back with ‘migrant Muslim appeasement’ jibe

Guwahati: Opposition parties in Assam, led by Congress, on Friday filed a complaint with the police against the BJP, alleging “vote chori” through the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls, and accused BJP of attempting to manipulate the voters’ list ahead of the assembly elections.Opposition parties — Congress, CPI(M), Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, and CPI(ML)L — lodged the complaint at Dispur police station in Guwahati accusing BJP of colluding with the Election Commission of India to deliberately remove genuine voters from the rolls.The opposition leaders cautioned that these actions endanger democratic rights and urged an immediate suspension of the revision process, and impartial review of the electoral rolls.Speaking to the media after filing the complaint, senior Congress leader Ripun Bora alleged that the exercise was part of a planned conspiracy. “All opposition parties have come together to file the complaint against BJP state president Dilip Saikia for violating election commission laws and breaching the Representation of the People Act,” he added.Bora said ECI should have taken action on its own. “ECI has not taken any action yet. Therefore, all opposition parties, have united to file a complaint against him. The police need to investigate the matter and collect the video conference conversations to ensure they cannot be distorted, and inform the people of Assam,” he added.The complaint alleged that Saikia, in an internal video conference with party workers, instructed BJP MLAs and district presidents to identify voters who are not BJP supporters. It claimed that the exercise was to be carried out across nearly 60 constituencies and that party leaders were asked to submit the lists by Jan 12.Before filing the complaint, the opposition representatives submitted a five-page memorandum with five demands to the chief electoral officer of Assam.The state BJP hit back, dismissing the allegations as politically motivated. Party’s spokesperson Jayanta Kumar Goswami accused the opposition of indulging in “Miya appeasement” and attempting to fuel “Miya” nationalism in Assam.“More than 11,000 Muslims were evicted following the eviction drive carried out at Uriamghat in Sarupathar assembly constituency of Golaghat district. During the ongoing SR, names of around 11,000 persons from the constituency were deleted.”Goswami alleged that opposition leader Akhil Gogoi had launched a smear campaign against Saikia to prevent the deletion of Miya voters.