Ahead of the Assembly polls in Assam, the BJP has urged the Election Commission to delete names of illegal migrants from Bangladesh from the voters’ list and prepare a corrected list.
The party submitted a memorandum in this regard to the Chief Election Commissioner on Monday. “Illegal migrants from Bangladesh have fully enrolled themselves in the voters’ lists, ready to take over political power of the state in the 2011 Assembly elections of Assam,” the memorandum said.
Reacting to the BJP’s petition, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh said, the Saffron party has been saying such things for many years.
“To my mind voters’ list is created through a process. If they have some specific cases in mind, they should tell the names to the EC, I hope authorities will certainly act on their complain.” Claiming that the BJP has a tendency to give communal colour on such issues, the Congress leader said, “When a Hindu migrates from Bangladesh, the BJP treats him/her as a refugee, but when a Muslim migrates from that country, they call him/her illegal migrant.”
Suggesting that the BJP should desist from double speak on the issue, the Congress leader said, “There exists one law in India which governs migrants, whether they are Hindus or Muslims.”