Guwahati: With eight days left for the assembly elections, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday cast the indigenous Assamese voters as the ultimate arbiters of the state’s political future this time.“This election, the key to who wins and who loses lies in the hands of the Assamese people,” Sarma said at a campaign rally at Raha in Nagaon district, in a deliberate attempt to centre Assamese identity as the decisive force in this election and positioning BJP as the custodian of indigenous rights.Demographically, Nagaon is one of Assam’s most politically sensitive districts because of its Muslim-majority pockets, largely comprising people of Bangladesh-origin. Out of the seven assembly constituencies here, three are Muslim-dominated.Sarma’s repeated references to freeing “one lakh bighas of land” from encroachers in the past term and pledging to recover “every inch” in the next term highlight land as both a tangible achievement and a symbolic rallying point.“In the past five years, we freed nearly one lakh bighas of land from illegal encroachers. In the coming five years, we will recover every inch of land still under the grip of encroaching Miyas (Bangladesh-origin migrant Muslims).”“In the last five years, we politically broke the hands and legs of Miyas. In the next five years, I pledge to break their backbone as well,” Sarm added, projecting an uncompromising resolve and drawing a sharp line between indigenous Assamese and Bangladesh-linked population. He reinforced BJP’s narrative of protecting indigenous rights against demographic change.PM Narendra Modi on Monday said infiltration has become a matter life and death issue for Assam.
