GUWAHATI

Assam Congress president and MP Gaurav Gogoi on Sunday (January 11, 2026) said Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s credibility had eroded among the people of the State because of what he described as repeated false and misleading statements.

Mr. Gogoi also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of executing a plan to manipulate the electoral rolls and disenfranchise sections of voters perceived to be loyal to political parties opposed to the BJP and its allies.

“The Chief Minister’s words have zero credibility. Key individuals involved in the death of Zubeen Garg have been deliberately excluded from the chargesheet because of their proximity to the Chief Minister and his family,” Mr. Gogoi said at a programme to induct leaders from other parties, including the BJP and its regional ally, the Asom Gana Parishad.

He said the Assam government had filed a “weak and compromised” chargesheet in December and failed to deliver justice to the family of the Assamese cultural icon, who died while swimming off an island in Singapore on September 19. The chargesheet was filed against seven people who accompanied Garg to Singapore.

Mr. Gogoi further accused the BJP-led government of resorting to divide-and-rule politics. “Assam cannot continue to be divided by hatred and violence. When people stand united, no Chief Minister can rule through fear,” he said.

Referring to allegations that the government was attempting to delete the names of 10,000 “anti-BJP” voters from electoral rolls across most of Assam’s 126 Assembly constituencies, he said the Congress and its allies would ensure that no outsider was included in the voter lists.

“Every polling booth will have a help desk to protect citizens’ voting rights. Any religiously motivated evictions or voter list manipulations are political strategies, and we will fight them,” Mr. Gogoi said.

He added that the alleged targeting of people who voted against the BJP in previous elections reflected the ruling party’s fear of losing power if electoral rolls were not manipulated.