Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that four lakh to five lakh Miya voters will be deleted when the special intensive revision of electoral rolls takes place in the state and said that his job is to “make them suffer”.

“What ‘vote chori’ [vote theft] means to us?” Sarma asked while speaking to reporters. “Yes, we are trying to steal some Miya votes. Ideally, they should not be allowed to vote in Assam. They should be able to vote in Bangladesh.”

He added: “We have made arrangements so that they cannot vote in Assam. But this is preliminary. When the [special intensive revision] comes to Assam, four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be cut.”

In Assam, “Miya” is a derogatory word used to refer to undocumented immigrants and is exclusively directed at Muslims of Bengali origin. They are often accused of being undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.

Once a pejorative in Assam, from the common use of the honorific “Miya” among South Asian Muslims, the term has now been reappropriated by the community as a self-descriptor to refer to Muslims who migrated to Assam from Bengal during the colonial era.

Assam is not among the 12 states and Union Territories where the Election Commission is conducting the special intensive...

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