The Northeastern state of Assam has been facing the problem of illegal immigrants swarming to the state in hoards for some years now. However, turns out, it is the Congress leaders that have been allowing this practice to go on for some measly electoral gains. Addressing an election rally on Friday last week, Assam Congress leader Sibamoni Bora allegedly said that during her tenure as a BDO (Block Development Officer) in the area, she and her father (late Kiran Bora), the then local MLA of the area enrolled the names of illegal Bangladeshis in the voter list and urged them to vote for her.
The Congress candidate from the Batadrava constituency in the Nagaon district further said that she had accepted all the applications without a single house visit. And those who were voting nowhere, she had enabled them to do so. “If I had not done that at that time, you would not have got the voting rights,” Sibamoni can be heard speaking.
As soon as Sibamoni’s controversial statements got out in the public, BJP was quick to jump in and sought legal action by shooting off a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Saturday.
“While addressing a public meeting in her constituency has admitted of enrolling ineligible persons in the voter list using her official capacity as BDO without verifying and examining the documents despite knowing that these persons are not eligible to be enrolled as voter,” read BJP’s complaint to the Election Commission.
The complaint further read, “The illegality came to light in a video uploaded by her in her Facebook account. A local news channel also telecast the news which also supported the fact of her illegality. By the said statement made in a public meeting Sibamoni Bora tried to induce voters to cast their votes in her favour for the illegal act done by her, which amounts to corrupt practice also.”
The party sought legal action against Bora under the penal laws for Commission of offence against the State and also asked the EC to take stern action against Bora by cancelling her candidature and directing her not to address any public meeting till the end of the election process.
Meanwhile, the Batadrava unit of BJP and Krishak Sramik Unnayan Parishad (KSUP) have lodged two separate FIRs against Sibamoni Bora in the Batadrava Police Station and Nagaon police station respectively on Saturday for her controversial speech.
A depleted Congress is staring at an uphill task of reviving its fortunes in the state where it was decimated in the last assembly elections. In an attempt to have any chance at getting back in the state, the grand old ‘secular’ party of the country has even tied up with Badruddin Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) – further suggesting that Congress has completely lost the plot. The statements by Sibamoni are a mere extension of the abysmal state in which the party currently is.