Shah sets the BJP's campaign ball rolling for 2026 Assam assembly polls

Guwahati, Aug 29 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday concluded his two-day visit to Assam where he set the BJP's ball rolling for the 2026 assembly elections with sharp attacks on the Congress leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Gaurav Gogoi, while reiterating the party's longstanding pledge to rid the state of infiltrators.

Shah began his visit by chairing the BJP's core committee meeting here on Thursday night to discuss and strategise the preparations for the assembly polls.

On Friday, Shah inaugurated the Raj Bhawan's newly constructed Brahmaputra wing where he launched an attack on Rahul Gandhi and asked him to apologise for the "abuses" hurled at Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Congress leader's 'Voter Adhikar Yatra' in Bihar.

Shah claimed that Gandhi's politics has touched the "lowest level" with his "Ghuspetiya Bachao Yatra (save infiltrators yatra)" in Bihar.

"Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the PM, his late mother and the people of the country, if he has any shame left. The nation is watching him and his party in disgust,'' he said.

Shah and other senior BJP leaders had also slammed the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha on Thursday, after a purported video showed an unidentified person using a Hindi expletive against Modi from a dais raised during the yatra in Darbhanga town, from where Gandhi, Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had left for Muzaffarpur on motorcycles.

''The Ghuspetiya Bachao Yatra is to protect the infiltrators Congress' vote bank, but in any democracy, election is its soul. How can a nation be safe if infiltrators are allowed to pollute the system by entering their names in the voters list?'' Shah asked.

In Indian politics, Rahul Gandhi has ''started spewing hate and derision and the Congress politics is negative'', he said.

''Congress leaders have indulged in many hateful acts but it has crossed all limits with the abuse of the PM from the platform of its yatra where Rahul Gandhi was welcomed in Bihar,'' the home minister said.

Addressing the Panchayat Pratinidhi Sammelan in the second programme of the day, Shah said Assam cannot be led by people who make frequent visits to Pakistan, apparently referring to state Congress president Gaurav Gogoi's alleged links with the foreign nation.

He asserted that the BJP-led NDA will form the third consecutive government in Assam next year, riding on the back of the massive development works initiated by the PM and implemented by CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

"Modi carried out immense development works across the country, and Sarma took that flow to every household of the state. On the back of these works, the BJP-led NDA will form the government in Assam for the third consecutive term next year," he said.

Slamming opposition Congress, Shah said Assam cannot be allowed to be led by people who protect infiltrators and encourage encroachments by them.

"Assam will continue to be led by Modi and Sarma. It cannot be led by people who visit Pakistan frequently", he said.

The Assam CM and the BJP have been attacking the Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha over his British wife's alleged connection with Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

"Infiltrators encroached thousands of acres of our land. The BJP government launched a drive to clear encroachments, but Gaurav Gogoi opposed it. The Assam government freed 1,29,548 acres from encroachment by infiltrators", Shah said.

He asserted that the BJP has restored the sanctity of Srimanta Sankardeva and Mahapurush Madhavdeva's satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) by evicting infiltrators from their lands.

Highlighting the issue of infiltration again in the final programme of his visit to mark the birth centenary of Assam's first non-Congress CM Golap Borbora, Shah said the BJP will keep its promise to make the country free of infiltrators.

The high-power demography mission, announced by Modi on Independence Day, is a definitive step towards studying the demographic pattern of the country and identifying infiltrators, he said.

"We had made a promise to Assam, but we have not been able to fulfil it in 10 years. We will keep this promise and make Assam and the entire country free of illegal foreigners," he said.

Shah recounted how Borbora, who led a Janata Party government from March 1978 to September 1979 in the state, had undertaken a drive to cleanse the voters' list when by-elections were necessitated for the Mangaldai Lok Sabha seat.

"Even in the absence of computerised electoral rolls, Borbora's government detected names of 36,780 illegal foreigners, and this cleansing of the voters' list can be deemed as the origin of the Assam Agitation," he said.

"The Election Commission is cleansing the voters' list through the SIR now, but some parties are opposing it. It shows the moral degradation in today's politics," Shah said.

The Union Minister later left for Delhi and was seen off at the airport by the CM and his cabinet colleagues, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowak, BJP state president Dilip Saikia and senior officials of the state.

''It was an honour to receive the guidance and mentorship of Adarniya Shri @AmitShah Ji over the last 24 hours. His energy motivates us all and we thank him for spending time with us to mark important milestones'', the CM posted on 'X'. PTI DG TR SSG MNB