The Assam unit of the BJP has alleged the ruling Congress of targeting the Hindu Bengalis in Assam for vote-bank politics ahead of the forthcoming lok Sabha polls.
Spokesman of the Assam BJP Shiladitya Deb said this on Friday while addressing the media in Guwahati and added that the Congress as part of a conspiracy asked the Government machinery to register fresh cases against the Hindu Bengalis in the Foreigners Tribunal so that they are listed as ‘D’ (doubtful) voters and they are denied their right to vote in the forthcoming parliamentary polls.
“The status of the Hindu Bengalis in Assam is similar to those in Bangladesh. The Congress-led Government here assures them, on one hand, their ‘D’ voter tag but on the other, they are targeted for vote bank politics by the Congress,” he added. Deb came up with some statistics across the State and said that the number of fresh cases under Foreigners Tribunals had gone up in Hindu majority areas. The opposite trend is, however, seen in those Assembly segments where population is dominated by religious minority, he said.
In Nagaon district, Hojai is an Assembly segment dominated by Hindus and the 4,265 new cases under Foreigners’ Tribunal have been registered. Earlier there were 2,118 ‘D’ voters in the constituency. However, in Jamunamukh Assembly segment —which is dominated by religious minority population — only 380 new cases have been registered under the Foreigners’ Tribunal. Earlier there were only 374 ‘D’ voters in Jamunamukh segment,” Deb pointed out.
“Similarly, there are 1,700 cases of ‘D’ voters registered in South Karimganj segment, which is dominated by Bangali Hindus. However, in segments like North Karimganj, Hailakandi, Katlicherra and Algapur—which are dominated by religious minority population, the number of cases are only 81, 29, 37 and 43 respectively,” he said.
“These Hindu Bengalis, against whom fresh cases are registered under the Foreigners’ Tribunal are deprived of Electors’ Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and thus deprived of the voting right in the forthcoming lok Sabha polls,” he said adding that most of these Hindu Bangalis had their names enlisted in the electoral rolls since 2005.
“However, fresh cases have been registered against them to deprive them of their voting right,” he said. Dev demanded that the state government must immediately instruct the officials to refrain from lodging fresh cases and stop harassing the Hindu migrants.