BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday asked voters in Assam to re-elect Narendra Modi as prime minister to “throw out the infiltrators.”
“The Congress party failed to evict the 'ghuspetia' (Bangladeshi infiltrators) in the past 70 years, BJP government led by Modiji has started the same in the past five years. We have evicted the infiltrators from the jungles of Kaziranga National Park and cleared 200 acres of land. So elect Narendra Modi again as Prime Minister and we will detect the infiltrator one-by-one and throw them out,” Shah said at a rally in Kaliabor in eastern Assam. He was campaigning for AGP-BJP combine candidate Moni Madhab Mahanta.
Narendra Modi had made the same promise at a similar campaign rally ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, saying all foreigners must leave Assam with their baggage after May 16.
Many in Assam say that instead of fulfilling the promise, the Modi government brought the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in 2016, that sought to offer citizenship to migrants living in the state before December 2014.
The bill angered the indigenous people in the Northeast and alienated most of the saffron party’s allies in the region.
Mahanta, a former leader of All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) is pitted against sitting MP of Congress, Gaurav Gogoi, the son of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Alleging that the Congress government in the state sheltered the infiltrators, Shah said Gogoi has joined hands with Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF to prevent the defeat of his son Gaurav.
“The understanding between Congress and AIUDF means crowding Assam with the infiltrators. We must throw out the infiltrators,” he said in Teok in the Jorhat constituency, where the BJP has fielded Assam minister and former AASU leader, Topon Kumar Gogoi.
AIUDF decided to field only three candidates in the elections this time, saying it wanted to allow the anti-BJP forces to win in the remaining 11 Lok Sabha seats.