Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. File.
| Photo Credit: ANI
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) said that “four to five lakh Miya voters” will be deleted when the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls takes place in the poll-bound State, triggering sharp reactions from opposition leaders.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of an official programme in Tinsukia district’s Digboi, he also insisted that his job was to make the Miya—a pejorative term used in Assam for Bengali-speaking Muslims, often labelled Bangladeshi—people suffer.
“Vote chori means we are trying to steal some Miya votes. They should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh,” the Chief Minister said.
“We are ensuring that they cannot vote in Assam,’ he said, when his attention was drawn to notices served on thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of the poll rolls.
While the Election Commission is conducting the SIR in 12 States and Union Territories across the country, it marked Assam for the SR, an exercise similar to the usual updates to the electoral rolls.
“This [SR] is preliminary. When the SIR comes to Assam, four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam,” the Chief Minister said, indicating he did not care about what his opponents think of his intention.
“Let Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” he said, repeating his earlier statement that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government will create some ‘utpaat’ (disturbances) for the community within the ambit of the law.
Reacting to Mr Sarma’s comments, MLA and Raijor Dal president Akhil Gogoi pointed out that the people did not make him the Chief Minister to keep the Miya people under pressure.
“The Chief Minister has made the Constitution absolutely ineffective in Assam,” Congress leader Aman Wadud said.
According to the draft electoral roll published on December 27, 2025, Assam has 2.51 crore voters after 4.78 lakh were marked dead and 5.23 lakh were found shifted, while 53,619 multiple entries were deleted. The poll authorities claimed 100% verification covering more than 61 lakh households
On January 25, six opposition parties — Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M), and CPI(M-L) — submitted a memorandum to the State’s Chief Electoral Officer, alleging widespread legal violations, political interference, and targeted harassment of genuine voters during the SR exercise, which they claimed was “arbitrary, unlawful, and unconstitutional”.
Published – January 27, 2026 10:28 pm IST
