Congress to contest all five seats in bypolls: Assam state chief

Guwahati: Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah on Tuesday said the party will contest all the five Assembly seats where bypolls will be held.

He also reiterated the party’s opposition to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, even as the state government asked its border police wing to advise non-Muslim illegal immigrants entering the state prior to 2015 to apply for citizenship under the new law.

These decisions were part of discussions during a meeting chaired by AICC general secretary Jitendra Singh with district-level party leaders here on Monday, marking the first day of his three-day visit, Borah said.

Singh plans to hold further meetings with MPs, MLAs, and other leaders to strengthen the party's organisational structure and strategise for the future.

In a post on X, Borah said, "@INCAssam would contest all the 5 seats where byelections would be held. We would constitute 5 teams of senior leaders who would reach out to the grassroots. The Election Commission is yet to announce the bypoll dates.

Credit: X/@BhupenKBorah

The Assembly seats of Samaguri, Behali, Dholai, Sidli, and Bongaigaon became vacant after the incumbents were elected to the Lok Sabha. Only the Samaguri seat was held by the Congress, while the rest belonged to the BJP and its allies AGP and BPF.

The party had contested the last Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections as part of an opposition alliance, though members of the forum had ended up pitching candidates against each other in a few seats in the parliamentary polls.

Borah said the meeting also decided to activate the party’s Disciplinary Action Committee (DAC) to dispose of all pending disciplinary cases as soon as possible.

"We reiterated our opposition to CAA, and reminded ourselves of the commitment made by Shri @RahulGandhi ji to remove CAA after coming to power," he added.

The party's reaffirmation of its opposition to the CAA came as the state government issued a directive to its Border Police wing not to refer cases of non-Muslim illegal immigrants who entered the state before 2015 to the Foreigners Tribunal and instead advise them to apply for citizenship through CAA.

In a letter to the Special Director General of Police (Border), Home and Political Secretary Parth Pratim Majumdar asked the state police border wing not to forward the cases of persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain and Christian communities who entered India prior to December 31, 2014, directly to the Foreigners Tribunal (FT).

Majumdar stated that such persons should be advised to apply on the citizenship portal for consideration of their application by the Indian government.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma accepted that the government had issued the letter and it was ‘just a statutory order’ as per the law.