Stepping up political pressure ahead of the assembly elections, the Congress-led Opposition bloc in Assam has lodged an FIR against state Bharatiya Janata Party President Dilip Saikia, accusing him of directing BJP MLAs to delete Opposition voters during the ongoing Special Revision of electoral rolls.
Opposition parties have accused the state government of using force and ignoring rehabilitation concerns.
Assam's opposition AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam was arrested on Thursday on sedition charges for allegedly defending Pakistan and its complicity in the Pahalgam terror attack, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The AIUDF has distanced itself from the legislator's comments, stating that the views were his own and not of the party. Islam was arrested from his residence in Nagaon district. Sarma said no attempt to directly or indirectly support Pakistan through any means, including on social media, will be tolerated and the police have strict directions to act against such persons immediately. Assam Police said the AIUDF legislator has been arrested for a "misleading and instigating statement which went viral and had the potential to create an adverse situation ". A case has been registered at Nagaon Sadar police station under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita. Meanwhile, AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal said the views expressed by Islam are his personal opinion.
The anti-incumbency factor is virtually a non-issue in the forthcoming assembly elections in Assam.
It added that there was 'no sincerity' on the part of the central government to solve the insurgency problem of the state.
The Asom Gana Parishad, the state's main Opposition party, has raised a demand to initiate immediate peace talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom. Political observers, however, view the renewed call by the AGP for peace talks as an attempt to placate ULFA before the forthcoming panchayat election in Assam.
Assam's opposition parties including the BJP, AGP and AIUDF accused the ruling Congress of murdering democracy even as party won the election to two of the Rajya Sabha after four of the BJP MLAs and two AIUDF MLAs decided to vote for Congress candidate defying a party whip to vote for opposition's common candidate Jayanta Baruah, a media baron.
'Super Cop', K P S Gill has stirred the proverbial hornet's nest with his comment that the first martyr of the Assam agitation against illegal migrants, Khargeswar Talukdar, was not killed because of police action but drowned in a pond.
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