Overview
- Addressing BJP forums and in a televised interview, Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that Bangladeshi-origin Muslims now constitute about 40% of Assam’s population and warned of dominance if the share exceeds 50%.
- He described a method that starts with Muslims at 34% in Census 2011, estimates roughly 38% by 2021, and rounds to 40% in 2025, noting there was no 2021 census.
- Sarma accused the Congress of supporting infiltrators and cast the upcoming state elections as a “civilisational” contest to safeguard Assamese identity and culture.
- He pointed to ongoing evictions of alleged illegal immigrants as a signal of a tougher approach and cautioned of political consequences if the demographic share rises further.
- No independent data currently verifies the projections, with the last official baseline remaining Census 2011 and the 2019 NRC list that excluded about 1.9 million people.