Assam Congress begins training booth level agents in anticipation of SIR 

With Assam administration indicating that the State will soon be holding Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, State Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi said that the party has begun the process of recruiting and training its Booth Level Agents (BLAs). 

The SIR is currently underway in Bihar and the Election Commission (EC) has indicated that it will be held across the country. 

“So far we have registered close to 28,880 BLAs. We have also started a training programme for these agents. On Sunday, we concluded one round of training. At the end of the month, we will hold a week-long training programme. In the first module, we are briefing them on how voter list manipulation has been undertaken in Maharashtra and in Karnataka. We will show them the evidence that Rahul Gandhi’s team had provided,” Mr. Gogoi told The Hindu.

The party is also prepping up its legal team to support the BLAs to file objections and claims. 

The SIR exercise in Assam, Mr. Gogoi said, will be particularly difficult because of the demographic complexities, which he accused the BJP government of further complicating.

‘NRC in limbo’

“The NRC (National Register of Citizens) remains in a limbo in Assam. The BJP government is not willing to address the issue of foreigners since they have no solutions to offer. Instead with the Citizenship Amendment Act, they have issued guidelines by which several Bengali speaking people have to give a written affidavit that they are from Bangladesh to apply under the Act,” he said. 

Instead of identifying illegal Bangladeshis as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had claimed, Mr. Gogoi pointed out that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, today says that he is unable to address the issue. “Instead of making Assam safe and secure, he is absolving himself of responsibility and wants to distribute guns to the people,” he said.