Every Indian has stake in West Bengal polls outcome: Himanta
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that every Indian has a stake in the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections, as Bangladeshi infiltrators were not only causing demographic change in the State but also spilling over to adjoining States.
Sarma said the BJP will win over 100 of the 126 seats in Assam, and will bag 110 of the 152 seats that went to polls in the first phase of polls in West Bengal.
“It would not be surprising if the BJP won over 200 seats in West Bengal.
The around 93 per cent voter turnout in phase 1 showed that there is no atmosphere of fear which had earlier prevented people from openly backing the BJP,” he said, while addressing a press conference in Kolkata.
Sarma said the West Bengal Assembly election was not a routine State poll but a contest with civilisational implications for the entire nation, particularly its eastern and northeastern States.
“Every Indian has a stake in this election.
The impact of infiltration is not limited to West Bengal and Assam.
It is spilling over to Jharkhand, Bihar and other States,” he said, responding to the TMC’s narrative of branding BJP leaders as outsiders.
He said that if the BJP was not voted to power in West Bengal, the State risked becoming an “extension of Bangladesh” due to unchecked infiltration.
“A demography once changed cannot be reversed,” he said.
Sarma pointed to West Bengal’s geography as the central factor, noting that the State shared 54 per cent of India’s total border with Bangladesh, compared to Tripura’s 21 per cent, Meghalaya’s 11 per cent, Mizoram’s 8 per cent and Assam’s 6 per cent.
“You cannot see the West Bengal election in isolation from Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram.
If even one border remains open, its impact will be felt across all other States,” he said, adding that infiltrators entering through Malda and Murshidabad districts were not staying confined to West Bengal but were using the State as a corridor to reach Assam and other parts of India.
On fencing of the international border, Sarma accused the Trinamool Congress Government of deliberate obstruction.
“Assam had achieved 100 per cent fencing and work is in progress in Tripura, while West Bengal remained the only State where fencing was not happening,” he claimed.
Sarma alleged that the TMC’s failure to cooperate was driven by vote bank interests as well as economic stakes through syndicates involved in cow smuggling and drug trafficking.
“West Bengal has become a safe passage (for infiltrators). TMC has political and economic interests in not allowing fencing,” he alleged.
Sarma claimed that registered voters have increased by leaps and bounds in Uttar Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, South and North 24 Parganas, Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar, and Nadia.
“These are all border districts. Anyone who visits Murshidabad, Dinajpur or Malda today will feel these are extensions of Bangladesh,” he said.
Sarma said things are faster than the statistical projections on demographic change.
He claimed the Muslim population in Assam had already touched approximately 40 per cent.
He warned both States would lose their Hindu majority status within the next two decades if infiltration went unchecked.
Sarma said if the BJP comes to power in West Bengal, he would request Union Home Minister Amit Shah to form a task force comprising chief ministers of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram to jointly tackle infiltration.
He called for extending the Legal Immigrant Expulsion Act of 1948, which allows a district collector to expel an infiltrator within 48 hours, to all five border States, noting the Supreme Court had already upheld the law for Assam.
Sarma claimed there are no Bengali Hindus in detention camps in Assam.
