Several opposition leaders have accused Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of diverting the attention of people from “pressing problems” by making claims such as that the Muslim population in the state has risen to 40 per cent. On Wednesday, Sarma, a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader claimed that the Muslim population in Assam has increased to 40 per cent. He contended that the demographic change is a “big issue” in the northeastern state.

“I come from Assam and demographic change is a big issue for me. Muslim population in my state is 40 per cent now, which was 12 per cent in 1951. It is not a political issue for me, but a matter of life and death,” Sarma, who is also the BJP's Jharkhand election co-in charge, said on the sidelines of a party meeting.

Meanwhile, reacting to the remarks, Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah said that the Chief Minister is making such statements to "hide his failures". The opposition also sought to know the source of the figure and pointed out that no census has been conducted in Assam.

“Sarma is making such statements now not out of concern but to hide his failures, be it in solving the flood and erosion problem, unemployment, daily wages of tea garden workers or granting Scheduled Tribe status to six communities,” Borah said.

Sushmita Dev, the Trinamool Congress national spokesperson, said in a video message that the statement of Sarma in Jharkhand is incorrect.

“Assam CM's statement in Jharkhand is incorrect. The data given by him is false. In 1952, Muslim population in Assam was not 12 per cent, it was 25 per cent. Assam is a border state with Bangladesh, many people had come here after Partition,” Dev said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

“I want to remind the CM that Government of India was to conduct the census in 2021, which it did not do on the pretext of COVID. So, from where did this 40 per cent figure come?” the former Lok Sabha MP added.

(With input from agencies)