Congress leader Debabrata Saikia on Thursday alleged that the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP had collected money from state government offices to meet panchayat poll expenses.

Addressing a news conference at Rajiv Bhawan here, Saikia lambasted the BJP government for engaging in illegal means to collect money to bear expenses for the poll. “The government is hand in glove with corrupt officials and has been collecting money from them to meet panchayat poll expenses.” He said after the BJP government come to power in Assam, incidents of violence have been reported from many places.

“The BJP leaders don’t want peace. They want to politicise every issue and dislodge the peaceful atmosphere of the state. We have organised free and fair panchayat elections in our tenure but now the BJP government is using muscle power to win polls,” he said.

Saikia said some people have boycotted the panchayat election in chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s ancestral village because the government has done nothing for them in the past two years. “Sonowal spoke about a pollution-free and corruption-free Assam but the government is involved in illegal coal mining. In Margherita in Tinsukia district, coal mining has been rampant and the government is involved in extracting natural resources with the coal mafia,” he alleged.

Saikia said the statement of All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal about doubtful voters was incorrect and that the emergence of doubtful voters began during the reign of the AGP government. “The AGP started the D-voter tag to harass genuine Indian citizens. We are not responsible for D-voters and the AIUDF chief has no right to defame our party. He only knows to indulge in religious politics and divide people to garner votes.”

“The AGP is a coalition partner of the BJP in Assam but it is not supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. Sometimes an AGP leader makes statements like ‘if the bill is passes, we will leave the BJP’. The AGP is not clearing is stand and playing a double game,” Saikia said. He said they have cleared their stand that they will not support the citizen bill, which is anti-people.

Recently, Dibrugarh district Congress expelled 12 party members for anti-party activities.

Asked what steps the party will take against such members, Saikia said they will take action according to party rules and that they will not tolerate such activities.

The BJP’s Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan claimed the Congress’s statement to be false and baseless. “The Congress is a radar-less ship and the statement has no base. It is not our culture. It’s their culture and if they have evidence they should produce it.”