The Congress candidate for Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, Pradyut Bordoloi, alleged that the ruling BJP is trying religious polarisation in Nagaon, which has become a Muslim majority constituency after delimitation by the Election Commission last year.

Out of a total electors of around 18.2 lakh, there are over 10.5 lakh Muslim voters in the Nagaon constituency after the delimitation.

Like every medicine has an expiry date, such a kind of communal polarisation is going to expire and public discourse will take a different turn, he said, expressing optimism about public wisdom.

“After 1826 when the Britishers came to Assam, they faced a lot of resistance from different ethnic groups. At that time Britishers took a policy and introduced poppy or opium cultivation here. And the protest could be subdued after introducing opium or drugs for an initial period.

“For us in Assam and the country, BJP has propagated and circulated a different kind of opium and that opium is religious polarisation. In the bargain, when you make people irrational and disoriented, the issues that touch their day-to-day life have been ignored. This is the main issue,” Bordoloi told PTI in an interview.

Asked if making Nagaon a Muslim majority seat would help him, Bordoloi said the Congress could retrieve the constituency in 2019 after 35 years despite Hindus being the dominant community. “Majority Hindu people voted for me and I could win. The point is, I am acceptable to all sections and that is my good fortune. I enjoy the confidence of all communities of my constituency,” he claimed.