Minorities Favoured Congress, Hindus Voted on Merit in Lok Sabha Polls: Himanta Sarma's Bold Remark

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, no stranger to making bold statements, on Saturday, accused the minority community of voting for the Congress in large numbers in Lok Sabha elections 2024 despite the development work done by his BJP government. 

In a veiled attack on Muslims, he added that Hindus didn't indulge in appeasement politics as they voted for candidates from every party based on their merit.

Addressing a felicitation event of victorious MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Guwahati, Sarma said, “I proudly say that the Hindu community in Assam did not do politics of appeasement. Hindus have voted on merit.”  

"But a particular community has done such tactical voting that no matter how much development has taken place in their area, the community has given its 100 per cent vote to the Congress,” he added.  

'One Community Does Communalism'

Sarma claimed that Hindus don't indulge in communalism. "If someone commits communalism in Assam, one community does it, one religion does it, and no other religion commits communalism there. This election is proof of that,” he remarked.

“Someone is contesting against Sarbananda Sonowal ji; someone is contesting against Bijuli Kalita Medhi, and someone is contesting against Dilip Saikia. The people of Assam have voted for us based on merit, hope, aspiration and within the complaint of scarcity, they also voted for the party that was against us,” Sarma added.

The NDA won 11 of the 14 seats in Assam in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, while the INDIA bloc, led by the Congress, won the other three seats.