‘Hindus don't indulge in communalism, only one religion’: Himanta Sarma

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday alleged that the Bangladesh-origin minority community is the only community in Assam which indulges in communalism.

Biswa Sarma claimed the community he referred to overwhelmingly voted for the Congress in this Lok Sabha election, without considering the development work done for them by the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state.

Speaking at a felicitation programme of winning candidates of the BJP and its allies at the party's state headquarters here, he said the ruling alliance garnered nearly 47 per cent of the votes polled, while Congress and its allies bagged 39 per cent of the votes.

The BJP-AGP-UPPL coalition won 11 out of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in the state, with Congress bagging the remaining three.

"If we analyse the 39 per cent votes of the Congress, it is not spread across the state. Fifty per cent of it is concentrated in 21 assembly segments which are minority dominated. In these minority-dominated segments, BJP got 3 per cent votes," he claimed.

"This proves that Hindus do not indulge in communalism. If anyone indulges in communalism in Assam, it is only one community, one religion. No other religion does it," the Chief Minister asserted, without naming any sect.

He said that the minority-dominated areas may have no roads, no electricity, but they have been voting overwhelmingly for Congress and did so again.

In contrast, though BJP has been working for the Assamese people and tribals, these communities have not voted 100 per cent for the saffron party, he added.

"Except in Karimganj, if we consider the centres with majority Bangladesh-origin people, 99 per cent of votes have gone to Congress," he said.

"They (minority people) may be residing in houses given by (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi, availing electricity and sanitation facilities provided by Modi, but when they go to vote, they vote for Congress," Mr Sarma claimed.

He maintained that the Bangladesh-origin community will vote for Congress because they want to "control the state in the next 10 years".

Mr Sarma alleged that the members of the community attacked a police station in Lakhimpur, a village in Barpeta and tried to encroach land in Kokrajhar when the BJP government was "inactive" since the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was in place..

"When BJP government will not be there, one can only imagine how many such attacks will happen," he added.

The Chief Minister said the BJP and its allies had won 92 out of 126 assembly segments in this Lok Sabha election, which was the highest ever for any ruling alliance in the state.

"This time, we got 47 per cent votes. Our target will be to get 50 per cent of the votes in 2026 state polls," the BJP leader added.

PTI with edits