Assam: Gourav Gogoi Accuses Assam CM Himanta of "Importing" BJP Workers to Rig Voter List

Jorhat: Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President and Jorhat MP Gourav Gogoi launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging that the ruling BJP is systematically trying to “dilute the Assamese vote” ahead of next year’s assembly elections by bringing busloads and trainloads of party workers from other states and enrolling them in Assam’s electoral rolls.

Addressing a press conference at Congress Bhawan in Jorhat, hours after his car met with a minor accident en route, Gogoi claimed the Chief Minister’s sole motive is to reduce the voting strength of genuine Assamese citizens.

“Himanta Biswa Sarma knows that if the real people of Assam get to vote freely and their vote truly counts, he will lose his chair and will have to answer to the people,” the Congress MP said. “That is why he is desperate to negate, reduce and ultimately dilute the vote of the local population by inserting names of BJP workers from outside the state.”

Gogoi urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately intervene and stop what he described as a “dangerous conspiracy” against Assam’s demographic and democratic rights during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the electoral roll.

The Congress leader also questioned the credibility of the Election Commission, stating that its reputation “is diminishing day by day in the eyes of the public.” Echoing Rahul Gandhi’s long-standing demand, he insisted that India must switch to machine-readable voter lists.

“India is a global IT superpower, yet we still depend on manual preparation of voter lists by booth-level officers in just one month. Why is the Election Commission shying away from technology?” Gogoi asked.

He demanded that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar give a clear answer on why machine-readable voter lists have not been implemented nationwide, especially for the upcoming assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry.

“Once voting is over, it becomes nearly impossible to detect or prove fake names in the voter list. Protecting the integrity of the vote is the first duty to protect India’s constitutional democracy,” Gogoi asserted.

Describing the issue as a “matter of national importance,” the APCC President warned that failure to adopt transparent, technology-driven voter lists would further erode public trust in the electoral process.

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