The Opposition Congress on Thursday accused Assam police of “threatening and harassing” its candidates to withdraw from next month’s panchayat elections, particularly in Hindu-majority areas.
Led by Assam PCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah and Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi, senior Congress leaders marched from Rajiv Bhawan to the police headquarters to lodge a complaint with the director general of police (DGP).
Thursday marked the final day for withdrawal of nominations for the three-tier panchayat polls scheduled for May 2 and 7 across 27 of the state’s 35 districts.
Police stopped the Congress march near the DGP office, but after more than an hour of negotiation, jostling and squatting on the road, six party leaders were allowed to meet inspector general of police Akhilesh Singh. DGP Harmeet Singh was reportedly unavailable due to his mother’s ill health.
Bordoloi also spoke to the DGP over the phone from outside the police headquarters, questioning the police’s “partisan role” and asking, “How can you allow this...?” He also read out to the media a letter he had written to the DGP last week over alleged police misconduct in his constituency, saying there had been no response so far.
State Seva Dal chief Deep Bayan said the meeting with the IGP lasted about 20 minutes, during which police officials assured them that the complaints would be looked into.
The protest came two days after Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the Congress had virtually given a “walkover” to the BJP, given the number of seats won unopposed. As of Tuesday, the ruling party had secured 200 anchalik panchayat and 18 zila parishad seats uncontested.
The Congress protest gains significance as the panchayat polls are seen as a bellwether for the 2026 Assembly elections.
Bhupen Kumar Borah (standing in white) protests near police headquarters on Thursday
A visibly agitated Borah and Bordoloi told the media that they had lost sleep due to distress calls from party workers allegedly facing police intimidation.
“Are we fighting the BJP or the police?” Borah asked. “Police are threatening our candidates, especially in Hindu-dominated areas, to withdraw. It’s a BJP ploy to portray that we have no base in Assamese Hindu areas and only win from minority regions. They are using money, muscle, and the police to force our candidates out.”
Bordoloi echoed the allegation, saying Congress candidates were being targeted particularly in districts such as Sonitpur, Darrang, Dhemaji and Tinsukia.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Borah alleged that the Assam Police were “working as agents of the state BJP government.”
“Over the past few days, we received reports that Congress candidates for zila parishad and anchalik parishad seats were being prevented from filing nominations. We were told that some police officers-in-charge visited our candidates’ homes and threatened to frame them in false cases unless they withdrew,” the post read.
Borah also stated that when the Congress delegation was initially denied entry into the police headquarters, they broke through barricades and insisted on being heard. “We only relented once senior police officials assured us that Assam Police would remain neutral,” he added, stressing that the police were duty-bound to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law.
He further alleged that BJP MLAs were being tasked with coercing Congress candidates into withdrawing their nominations.
Bordoloi, a former state minister, said: “Under the BJP, Assam Police no longer serves the public — it serves a political agenda. Congress workers are being harassed, and dissent is being crushed through fear. This is not law and order; it’s a threat to democracy.”
