Dibrugarh, Nov. 27: BJP national president Amit Shah today urged the people of Assam to vote the party to power to end influx from Bangladesh and to put the state on the path of development.
Kick-starting the party's campaign for the 2016 Assembly elections in the state, Shah hit out at the Congress by accusing it of abetting influx from Bangladesh to secure its vote bank.
"During the Congress rule, the country's borders were left unsecured resulting in unabated illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. The Congress, which has sided with the AIUDF, can't solve the influx problem. Only the BJP can solve this issue since it has never compromised with national interests," he said while addressing 20,000-strong party workers at Old Government Boys' High School here today.
He said illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have not only taken away jobs of the local youths but have also posed a threat to the national security.
"Some vested interests are misleading the people on the land-swap deal with Bangladesh. I want to make it clear that the deal will enable the country to seal the international border by erecting fencing," he said amid loud cheers.
He said the Narendra Modi government has taken up the issue of influx with the Bangladesh government, which had assured India of taking necessary steps to solve the problem.
Playing the development card, Shah promised double-tracking of the rail line to Assam, joint effort with the state government to solve the state's flood problem, steps for poverty alleviation and employment generation.
"The Modi government has given maximum emphasis on developing the Northeast. It had brought the DoNER ministry from Delhi to the region," he said.
"Earlier, Union ministers used to take decisions on implementing schemes in the Northeast from Delhi but Prime Minister Modi has directed that at least one minister should visit the region in every 15 days to oversee the implementation of the central schemes," Shah said.
Nearly 10,000 Congress workers and leaders took out a rally from Sonaram School playground to the
Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner’s office.
PCC president Anjan Dutta, who led the rally, later submitted a memorandum to President Pranab
Mukherjee through the deputy commissioner demanding his intervention to remove Acharya.
Text by a staff reporter, picture by UB Photos
He asked party workers to devote themselves and work towards forming a BJP government in the state by throwing out the Congress.
Shah accused the Tarun Gogoi government of rampant corruption during its 15 years of rule in the state and misuse of funds allocated by the Centre for the state's development.
He demanded that the Tarun Gogoi government should give an account of the utilisation of central funds over the last 15 years.
He said the Gogoi government has neither been able to provide 24-hour electricity to all the villages nor has it been able to connect all the villages by road or provide fluoride-free water to every village.
He said after coming to power at the Centre, the BJP-led government started work on updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to detect illegal immigrants who were used by the Congress as vote bank for ages.
Shah said the Centre had brought Ulfa leader Anup Chetia from Bangladesh to enable him to take part in the ongoing talks to bring permanent peace to the state.
Assam BJP leaders, including state unit president Sarbananda Sonowal, convener of the state BJP election management committee Himanta Biswa Sarma, party MLAs and MPs were also present at the rally.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY A STAFF REPORTER IN GUWAHATI
