New Delhi: With the Assam Assembly elections approaching, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma have intensified rhetoric around “infiltration”, urging voters to back efforts to make the state “infiltrator-free”. However, responses under the Right to Information Act reveal that both central and state authorities lack publicly available data to substantiate these claims.
Addressing election rallies in Sonitpur and Nalbari on March 29, Shah called on voters to “liberate” Assam from “infiltrators” and asserted that action against them would continue regardless of opposition from leaders such as Gaurav Gogoi and Rahul Gandhi. He also said the government would identify such individuals, remove them from electoral rolls, and repatriate them in accordance with the law, claiming that 1.25 lakh acres of land had been reclaimed from “intruders” over the past decade.
Sarma, speaking at a rally on March 27, echoed similar sentiments, pledging to intensify action and claiming that 1.5 lakh bighas of land had been cleared of encroachment in the past five years, with a target of five lakh bighas in the next term.
Despite these assertions, official data on “infiltrators” remains unavailable. On February 23, 2026, RTI activist Kanhaiya Kumar sought details from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, including the number of identified or apprehended “intruders” over the past decade, the number deported, and their country-wise classification.
The Secretariat redirected the query to the Political (B) Department, which stated that the information is maintained by the Assam Police Border Organisation. It added that the organisation is exempt from disclosure under Section 24(4) of the RTI Act, which excludes certain intelligence and security agencies from its ambit, except in cases involving corruption or human rights violations.
Earlier, in January 2026, the Ministry of Home Affairs had informed another RTI applicant that it does not maintain centralised data on “infiltrators”, stating that identification, detention, and deportation of illegal migrants fall under the jurisdiction of state governments.
The situation has created a contradiction, with the Centre pointing to states for data, while the state government declines to disclose it, raising questions about the basis of claims made during election campaigns.
Polling for all 126 Assembly constituencies in Assam is scheduled for April 9, 2026, with counting set for May 4. The main contest is between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the Congress-led opposition, with “infiltration” emerging as a key electoral issue as the BJP seeks a third consecutive term in power.