Guwahati, Aug 29: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday launched a blistering attack on the Congress, saying the party—once dominant in Assam—had been reduced to irrelevance.
“If you want to find Congress in Assam panchayats, you will not find them even with binoculars,” he said while addressing a rally of newly elected panchayat representatives in Guwahati.
Shah set the tone for the 2026 Assembly elections, due in March-April, by declaring that the BJP-led NDA would return to power for a third consecutive term in Assam, citing the party’s grassroots strength and its “uncompromising stand” on infiltration and land encroachment.
He said the Congress has been “wiped out” from the state’s grassroots political landscape. “When the Panchayat election results came, Congress was wiped out. Even if you use binoculars, you won’t be able to find Congress in the villages of Assam. Such is the victory you all have achieved,” Shah told the gathering, drawing loud applause.
Shah asserted that Assam cannot be led by those who “sympathise with infiltrators and encroachers.”
The Home Minister said the mandate reflected people’s trust in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development push and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s delivery of welfare schemes. He claimed this momentum would secure the BJP-led NDA a third consecutive term in Assam.
Highlighting the BJP government’s eviction drives, Shah said 1,29,548 acres of land had been freed from encroachment. “Infiltrators had occupied thousands of acres, including the satras of Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva. The BJP has restored their sanctity by evicting them,” he remarked.
He claimed that the Assam government had freed over 1,29,548 acres of land from infiltrators, despite resistance from Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi.
He further alleged that infiltrators used to marry local women, but claimed the BJP government had acted firmly through targeted operations.
