Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that lakhs of "doubtful" voters were deleted from the electoral rolls of Assam on the complaint of BJP workers, during the Election Commission's Special Revision (SR) exercise.
Addressing a press conference, the CM said the government's "war against illegal Bangladeshi Muslim (immigrant) will continue" while adding that more voters will be deleted when a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is conducted.
"This is only the beginning. Names of more such people will be deleted when the Special Intensive Revision is conducted," he said.
The remarks came a day after the ECI published the final voters' list for poll-bound Assam with over 2.49 lakh voters deleted from the electoral rolls, a decrease by 0.97 per cent from the draft list.
Himanta earlier said that only the names of "Miyas," a derogatory term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims, were being deleted from the electoral rolls. He also said that his job was to "make them suffer," triggering outrage.
"Which Hindu has got notice? Which Assamese Muslim has got notice? Notices have been served to Miyas and such people, else they will walk over our heads," the CM had said.
Speaking on the deletion of voters on Wednesday, Himanta said the BJP workers had filed complaints "as far as possible" and based on these, names of voters were deleted from the electoral rolls.
He also said that the BJP workers "convinced" booth-level officers that voters named in their complaints were not residents of the state. He added that it is the first time since the signing of the Assam Accord that such a large number of deletions have happened.
"Some people tried to threaten us, frighten us. But we went ahead and succeeded. Our BJP workers could convince booth-level officers that people against whom complaints were lodged were not residents anymore. We worked a lot," he said.
The electoral roll revision exercise in the state had come under fire from opposition parties and rights activists who alleged that it was being used for "vote theft" and genuine citizens, particularly Bengali-speaking Muslims, were being harassed during the process.
Intensifying such concerns, CM Himanta openly said that the government was trying to "steal some Miya votes."
"What vote theft means to us? Yes, we are trying to steal some Miya votes. Ideally, they should not be allowed to vote in Assam. They should be able to vote in Bangladesh," he said, adding that over four lakh 'Miyas' will be deleted from the electoral rolls after the SIR, Maktoob Media reported.
(With inputs from PTI)
