Assam’s land handed to infiltrators under Congress rule for votes: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Indian National Congress of allowing large-scale infiltration and land encroachment in Assam during its decades-long rule, alleging that land was “handed over to infiltrators” to secure votes.

Addressing a public rally in Kaliabor, Modi said illegal immigration had steadily increased under Congress governments, leading to encroachment on forests, wildlife corridors and traditional institutions. He claimed these developments posed a serious threat to Assam’s identity and culture.

“The BJP government is protecting Assam’s identity and culture by evicting infiltrators who encroached land,” Modi said, adding that the state administration’s actions to preserve forests, animal corridors and religious, cultural and historic structures were being “widely appreciated”.

Modi warned that infiltration was not only a regional concern but a national one. “Infiltrators pose a great threat to Assam as well as the country. You need to beware of Congress,” he told the crowd, accusing the party of pursuing what he described as “negative politics”.

The Prime Minister said the Congress had lost public confidence due to the absence of a development agenda. “Congress was born in Mumbai, but today, Congress stands in the fourth or fifth position in the city,” he said, claiming the party had “lost the faith of the country”.

Projecting the BJP as the dominant political force nationally, Modi said it had become the “first choice” of voters across states. He cited recent electoral outcomes to underline his point, saying people trusted the BJP for “good governance and development”.

Referring to Bihar, Modi said voters gave the BJP a record mandate despite the party being in power for two decades. He also pointed to civic poll results in Maharashtra, where, he said, Mumbai’s municipal corporation delivered a “historic mandate” to the BJP for the first time. In Kerala, he noted, the party now has a mayor in Thiruvananthapuram following the municipal elections.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister performed the bhoomi pujan for the Kaziranga Elevated Corridor Project, an infrastructure initiative aimed at enabling safer wildlife movement across National Highway stretches near Kaziranga and improving regional connectivity in Assam.