Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced that the Bharatiya Janata Party will stage peaceful rallies at every district headquarters across the state from October 13 to 31. According to the Chief Minister, the upcoming political campaign is designed to highlight what he described as attempts by the Congress party to blackmail constitutional institutions, resist the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, and undermine the democratic mandate.
Taking to social media, Sarma specifically criticized senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, accusing him of trying to exert improper political pressure on the Supreme Court. The criticism followed an incident where opposition leaders marched toward the apex court after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant declined a formal meeting, noting that the topics raised were sub judice and that a meeting would violate judicial propriety.
Sarma accused the opposition of maintaining double standards regarding election outcomes and democratic processes. He argued that the Congress party selectively accepts electoral victories while questioning outcomes elsewhere, and he asserted that constitutional institutions should not be held accountable to a political party's electoral frustrations.
The statewide demonstrations will also focus on rallying public support against the Congress's opposition to the electoral roll revision, which the ruling party claims is an effort to shield infiltrators. Furthermore, Sarma stated that the rallies will serve to reaffirm local backing for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his development vision for the country by 2047.
The announcement follows a sequence of events sparked by a letter sent by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi to the Chief Justice, seeking an audience to submit a memorandum concerning the Election Commission, student arrests, and transportation disruptions. Following the rejection of the meeting request by the judiciary, the ruling party in Assam organized its counter-offensive strategy to take the political dispute directly to the public through district-level demonstrations.