Sarma Claims Welfare Incentives Won’t Shift Muslim Votes Toward BJP in 2026 Assam Polls
Assam CM predicts demographic crisis as ideology trumps cash schemes.
In an unfiltered appearance at Agenda Aaj Tak 2025, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma stunned audiences by declaring that no amount of financial inducement — neither ₹10,000 nor ₹1 lakh — could ever persuade a significant section of Muslim voters to support him or the BJP in the 2026 Assembly elections. Dismissing the effectiveness of populist cash-transfer schemes similar to Bihar’s Mahila Rozgar Yojana, he asserted that electoral loyalty in Assam is dictated by deep-rooted ideology, not government largesse.
Singling out the Bengali-origin “Miya Muslim” community, Sarma recounted a striking personal experience: a Muslim constituent once told him, “Sir, your work is excellent; if you ever need a kidney, take mine — but my vote will never be yours.” The Chief Minister presented this as proof that identity and religious-political alignment override gratitude for development or welfare benefits, no matter how substantial.
Refusing to frame the issue as personal animosity, Sarma described the phenomenon as a structural reality of Assam politics. “Votes are cast for an idea, not merely for roads, electricity, or cash in hand,” he stated, cautioning parties against the delusion that doling out schemes automatically translates into ballots. While his government continues to implement welfare programmes for all communities, he insisted that electoral arithmetic in Assam operates on a different, non-transactional plane.
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In the same breath, Sarma escalated his long-standing warning about a “demographic invasion,” revealing projections that Assam’s Muslim population — already 38 per cent in 2021 — will cross 40 per cent by 2027 and could surpass 50 per cent in the coming decades if current decadal growth rates persist. He described such a threshold as an existential red line, beyond which indigenous Assamese communities “will not survive” culturally or politically,” framing unchecked migration as the gravest threat to the state’s identity.
Despite the stark rhetoric, Sarma claimed warm personal equations with Miya Muslim citizens, especially women, and expressed supreme confidence in the BJP’s victory even if the community votes en bloc for the Congress-AIUDF alliance. “Those who are genuinely Assamese and Indian are my people,” he concluded, drawing a clear distinction between citizens he serves and elements he considers external to Assam’s civilisational fabric.
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