BJP legislator Bijoy Malakar (left) with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Photo: Extraordinary event
Bijoy Malakar, a two-time MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from the Ram Krishna Nagar constituency in south Assam, is campaigning for the ‘Bangladeshi’ tag ahead of the Assembly elections.
Suruchi Roy, his Congress rival, hinted that the April 9 election would be a battle between a bhumikanya (daughter of the soil) and a person of dubious citizenship.
“Proceedings are pending against a BJP candidate in Gauhati High Court. He was not able to produce documents (to prove that he is Indian),” she said after filing her nomination papers in Sribhumi district on Friday (March 20, 2026).
Sribhumi is one of the three districts in the Bengal-ruled Barak Valley, which has 13 assembly constituencies.
Mr Malakar, who won the constituency twice in his earlier avatar as Ratabari before the 2023 delimitation exercise, denied her allegations. “Opponents throw Bangladesh accusations before every election and try to shake me. It is easy in Assam to label Bengali Hindus as Bangladeshi as they were soft targets,” he said.
Mr. Malakar said his Indian citizenship was unquestionable, adding that his father’s four brothers were government employees. “Since the case is in court, it is up to the judges to decide,” he said.
In December 2025, two persons from the Barak Valley – Braja Gopal Sinha and Bijoy Kumar Kanu – filed a case in the Gauhati High Court claiming that Mr Malakar was not an Indian citizen. They claimed their information came from “authentic sources”.
“Respondent No. 1 (Mr. Malakar) and his parents entered India (Assam) after the cut-off date, 25th March, 1971. The petitioners collected all the voters’ lists including the 1966 and 1971 voters’ lists of Karimganj and on verifying the voters’ lists, the petitioners found that name 12 was on the first list of the respondent entered in the respondent’s list0505 No. 318, Part No. 96, Karimganj North Assembly Constituency under House No. 15 of the Main Voter List of 2005, without any basis,” the synopsis of the petition states.
The petitioners alleged that the MLA’s father was listed as Shankar Malakar in the 2005 electoral roll, but his photograph matched that of an individual named Sudhanya Kumar Malakar in documents released in Bangladesh in 2020.
Another BJP legislator, Nihar Ranjan Das, faced a similar allegation when he contested the Dholai assembly seat in 2021. Amiya Kanti Das, who replaced him this time, accused him of being Bangladeshi.
Published – 21 March 2026 20:43 IST
