Miya Community will Vote for BJP in Lok Sabha Polls: Biswa

Morigaon: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday exuded confidence that girls, women and youths from the ‘Miya’ community will vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. ‘Miya’ is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam. In recent years, however, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance. “I believe that daughters, women and youths of the Miya community will vote for the BJP this time. I am struggling for Miya women so that there should not be talaqs, child marriage, and women should get property rights,” Sarma told reporters here.

Commenting on Dhubri Lok Sabha seat, Sarma said, if possible, he wants candidates of both Congress and AIUDF “to win and



go to Delhi for the future of Assam”. “I am hoping for Rakibul Hussain’s win. If he goes to Delhi, then we don’t need so many battalions at Kaziranga. We will cut down on that,” he said, indicating at the Congress leader’s alleged involvement in rhino poaching. “If (Badruddin) Ajmal goes to Delhi, then many of our Muslim girls won’t need to marry at an early age. He himself is looking to marry one such girl. If it’s possible, I wish both of them should win for Assam’s betterment,” Sarma said. AIUDF chief and Dhubri's sitting MP Badruddin Ajmal has reportedly said that the BJP was trying to provoke the Muslims and if he wanted to marry again, nobody could stop him as his religion allowed him to do so.