The CM recently said that only'miyas' were being 'harassed' during the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in the state, as they cannot be allowed to vote in Assam, and claimed that no Assamese -- Hindus or Muslims -- were facing any problem in the exercise. Opposition parties criticised him for this comment.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claims that 'Miyas' vote unitedly, leading to their political advancement, while the votes of 'our people' are scattered. He also asserted the need to maintain pressure on illegal settlers in Lower Assam.
Seven rivers, including the Brahmaputra, were flowing above the danger level, even as the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Guwahati predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall at isolated places in the state.
Security forces maintained a round-the-clock vigil in lower Assam districts, where violence resurfaced, and elsewhere in view of the anti-talk ULFA faction threatening major strikes ahead of Independence day celebrations.
In the heart of lower Assam -- Nalbari, Baksa and Barpeta districts -- the battle of ballot is basically confined to the regional Asom Gana Parishad and the ruling Congress majority of the total 14 constituencies, while the All India United Democratic Front and the Bodo People's Front are emerging front runners in rest of the constituencies.
It is likely to inundate the lower Assam districts of Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon and Nalbari, official sources said in Guwahati on Saturday.
Life was hit in lower Assam for the second day on Tuesday in three bandhs called to press for Bodoland and Kamtapur, while Karbi Anglong, which had erupted over statehood demand on the lines of Telangana, was slowly limping back to normal.
Replying to the motion, he said the crime rate has not increased if the population growth is taken into account.
With improvement in the situation in strife-torn lower Assam areas where 56 people lost their lives, curfew was on Tuesday relaxed in Kokrajhar for two more hours, while night curfew continued in Chirang and Dhubri district.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should avoid visiting the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva at Batadrava on January 22, as there can be no competition between Lord Ram and the medieval age Vaishnav saint revered as an icon in the state.
The India Meteorological Department has issued a 'Red Alert' and predicted 'very heavy' to 'extremely heavy' rainfall across several districts of Assam till Thursday.
'The Kuki-Zo are aware of this rich resource in their areas and feel the Meitei push for ST status is because of this reason'.
'It has been doing yeoman service for the people of the North East.'
Several rebel Maharashtra MLAs are currently camping in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Guwahati.
Nearly 86 lakh people in the state's 32 districts have been affected by heavy rain and subsequent floods this year, bringing life to a screeching halt in many parts.
While Himanta Biswa Sarma scotched rumours that he would be the king this time, political sources in Guwahati maintained that he, and not Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, had a bigger say in choosing candidates, reports Radhika Ramaseshan.
'Expect very heavy rainfall at some places in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar along with sub-Himalayan West Bengal comprising of Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri, including Sikkim, parts of Arunachal Pradesh, and parts of lower Assam, Rangia downward like Barpeta, Goalpara, Dhubri along with parts of Meghalaya.'
Himanta Biswa Sarma -- who is also the North East Democratic Alliance convenor -- took the oath of office and secrecy in Assamese.
The AGP, an ally of the BJP, voted for the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha, after Amit Shah's assurance. However, the scale, intensity and, persistence of the anti-CAA protests since then have taken it by surprise.
A 12-hour Assam bandh called on Friday by the BJP, to protest the introduction of a Constitutional Amendment Bill to facilitate swapping of land enclaves with Bangladesh, evoked mixed response.
The BJP will not announce the chief ministerial candidate before the Assam polls and a decision in this regard will be taken by its Parliamentary Board at the time of forming the next government, the saffron party state unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass said on Monday.
Train services were paralysed in Assam as several Bodo outfits resorted to a 12-hour railway blockade in Kokrajhar while violence continued for the third day in Karbi Anglong as ethnic groups stepped up their demand for a separate state on the lines of Telangana.
'Assam is not a dumping ground for Bangladeshi Hindu refugees,' says Assamese actor Ravi Sharma who joined the BJP in August and quit the party on December 10 in protest against the Citizenship Act.
Scattered violence continued for the sixth day on Thursday in riot-torn lower Assam districts where one person was killed in police firing while four persons were injured in an attack by a group of persons in Baksa district.
On Tuesday, the authorities sealed a Saradha office at the Lalganesh area in Assam, after protestors ransacked the office.
Ethnic violence continued in lower Assam's Kokrajhar district claiming the life of a farmer on Monday.
Blaming large-scale immigration from Bangladesh for the clashes in lower Assam, Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani on Tuesday said the government's "inaction" in dealing with the problem of infiltrators has resulted in indigenous communities feeling threatened.
Four persons were injured on Tuesday night, two of them seriously, in a powerful improvised explosive device blast at a 'Raas-leela' pandal in lower Assam's Udalgiri district, police said.
Over one lakh people have been reeling under the impact of the third wave of floods in six districts of Assam as the rising water of the Brahmaputra river inundated vast areas of human habitation and cropland.
Unidentified persons on Monday night fired indiscriminately, exploded grenades and burnt some houses in a village in the strife-torn Kokrajhar district of lower Assam, the police said.
Bandh supporters burnt tyres and pelted stones at vehicles in different parts of the state following which the police took nearly 500 of them into preventive custody in Guwahati, Golokgunj and Agomoni in Dhubri, official sources said.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday appealed to students and people from Assam and other parts of the north-east to refrain from rushing back to their home states in panic. The chief minister made the comment in the wake of reports of mass exodus of people, particularly students, who are afraid of a backlash following the widespread violence in lower Assam.
Rediff.com takes a look at life inside a relief camp in Kokrajhar, which was the epicenter of the recent ethnic violence, which claimed 77 lives.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation officials will visit violence-hit areas of Assam on Thursday after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi decided to recommend a probe by the Central agency into the clashes.
A bomb exploded on a railway track minutes after the Howrah-Guwahati down Garib Rath Express passed Goabari in lower Assam''s Kokrajhar district early on Sunday morning.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said all clauses of the Bodo Accord signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government last year will be implemented within two-and-a-half years.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the Tarun Gogoi-led Assam government of not taking timely steps to contain the conflict in violence-hit districts of lower Assam.
One more person was killed in police firing during clashes between minority immigrants and Bodos in lower Assam's Dhubri district even as fresh violence in Baksa district left four persons seriously injured on Thursday.
Assam remained cut off from the rest of the country by rail as train services remained suspended all over the state, with hundreds of Assam-bound passengers being stranded in Coochbehar in West Bengal on the border with Assam and other places
Violence escalated in trouble-torn Kokrajhar district of Assam on Sunday with a senior DIG rank police official and three others injured in mob attack prompting police to fire in self-defence, while the death toll in the last two days' clash between Bodos and immigrants rose to 12.
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