Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday dared the Opposition Congress to declare in its poll manifesto that it would make Assam free from infiltrators, while laying the foundation of a state police facility on a 174-bigha plot freed from encroachment near the city.

Launching a blistering attack on the Congress for “allowing” infiltration, Shah claimed infiltrators had encroached upon the land during successive Congress governments and that it had now been cleared by the Himanta Biswa Sarma administration. The presence of infiltrators, he said, was a “serious challenge” to Assam’s development, but the establishment of the 10th battalion of Assam police on the same land symbolised a turnaround.

“From this public platform, I dare Congress once again: if they are committed to throwing out infiltrators, let them include the promise of making Assam infiltration-free in their manifesto,” Shah said. “They will not do it. But I assure you that freeing land is not enough. Each infiltrator will be identified and thrown out of Assam by us.”

Accusing the Congress of damaging Assam’s jaati, maati and bheti, Shah said the party had allowed infiltrators to occupy fertile land, harming Assamese identity and culture. He asked: “Who is responsible for Dhubri, Barpeta, Darrang, Morigaon, Bongaigaon, Nagaon and Goalpara becoming Muslim-dominated, infiltrator-dominated? Congress is directly responsible. The BJP will deliver Assam from the sins committed by allowing influx.”

This was Shah’s fourth visit to the poll-bound state since August, with influx emerging as a key BJP poll plank. Assam had witnessed a six-year-long agitation from 1979 over the issue. “Across the country we had raised the slogan — Guwahati, your land, your country — but Congress never woke from its slumber,” he said.

Before Shah, chief minister Sarma also made influx the centrepiece of his speech. Identifying infiltrators as illegal Bangladeshis, he asserted the BJP would free five lakh bighas from encroachment if re-elected for a third term. In the current term, the government has freed 1.5 lakh bighas, he said, adding that around 40 lakh bighas across Assam remain encroached.

Left-wing extremism

Earlier, at the 87th Raising Day parade of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Guwahati, Shah reiterated that Left-wing extremism (LWE) would be wiped out by March 31.

Lauding the CRPF for strengthening internal security, he said India once had three major hotspots—Jammu and Kashmir, LWE-affected regions and the Northeast—where “success has now been achieved” in restoring peace.