Guwahati, April 6: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched a blistering attack on the BJP leadership on Monday, accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of raking up the infiltration issue for electoral gains while failing to deport illegal entrants despite a decade in power.

Addressing a massive rally at Borkhola in Cachar district, Kharge presented comparative data to claim that the Congress-led UPA had a far superior record in handling illegal migration than the current NDA government.

The Congress chief alleged that the BJP effectively nurtures the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators to keep their communal politics alive rather than driving them out. Quoting specific figures, Kharge stated that between 2005 and 2013, the UPA government successfully deported 88,792 illegal migrants, whereas under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rule between 2014 and 2019, he claimed only 2,566 people were removed.

Kharge further charged the BJP with weaponizing the recent delimitation exercise in Assam to rig the upcoming April 9 elections. He alleged that the exercise was strategically designed to dilute the voting strength of specific communities by moving populations out of areas where they held a majority. Specifically, he claimed that in areas where Muslims, Dalits, or Adivasis were prominent, the boundaries were shifted to include other classes and shift the political balance.

Shifting focus to the state’s resources, the Congress President accused the Prime Minister of handing over thousands of acres of Assam’s land to a specific corporate house under the guise of greenfield projects.

He warned that the BJP government is systematically selling off the state’s forests, water, mines, and energy reserves to private entities, concluding that the BJP must be removed to save the country’s resources as the state prepares for the high-stakes vote this Thursday.