Workers of the BJP sat in a dimly lit space under a thatched roof on March 15 in the party’s mandal office in Kheroni, located in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district. With just weeks left for the Assam Assembly election, Rajendra Kramsa, the party’s ST (Scheduled Tribe) morcha president from West Karbi Anglong district was rallying the 16 men and women who had gathered in the office.

“We should also learn to draw tribal sympathy…BJP is a collective party. Some have said that the BJP is a party for the Biharis and Bengalis. What about Congress? Who is Rahul Gandhi? Is he someone from our tribe?” Kramsa charged. The Karbi tribe is amongst the major ethnic tribes of Assam, primarily residing in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong—districts that have a measure of autonomy under the provisions of the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution and are governed by the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC). Currently, all 26 members of KAAC including the Chief Executive Member (CEM) Tuliram Ronghang are from BJP.

“Eviction was carried out in places like Langkaijan, Dudu colony, etc. [areas in Karbi Anglong district] during the leadership of Tuliram Ronghang. We can also inform the public about this,” Kramsa continued. The eviction drives he was referring to took place in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Over the past few years, Himanta Biswa Sarma’s BJP-led government had carried out evictions across the State. While other communities had also been affected in Karbi Anglong, the Chief Minister, in January, said: “Only ‘Miyas’ are evicted in Assam. How can Assamese people be evicted?” “Miya” is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam.

But for the past two years, the BJP had been presented with a different challenge in the area when it came to evictions. Protests took place in Kheroni demanding that the government clear village grazing reserves (VGR) and professional grazing reserves (PGR)—tracts of land set aside for livestock grazing, with some dating back to the British era. Over time Hindi-speaking non-tribals, primarily Hindus, had come to settle and run businesses on land designated as PGR and VGR areas.

“These people came from UP [Uttar Pradesh] and Bihar…They came after the 1970s. We considered those indigenous who were here before 1951,” said Angtong Kathar, a youth leader from Kheroni. In February 2024, as demands for evictions grew louder, CEM Tuliram Ronghang’s administration plans to evict over 2,000 families.

“A mass movement was initiated and there were 20-30 sit-in demonstrations. We carried out movements, protests and gave memorandums, but still didn’t see any outcome or response,” said Litsong Rongphar, a social activist who has been involved in the protests since 2024.

Then, on December 6, 2025, several people sat on a hunger strike. As the news of the demonstration spread across the State, the CEM promised a meeting with the demonstrators. But in the intervening night of December 21 and 22, the strikers were picked up by the police and detained. Over the next few hours, violence ensued—Tuliram Ronghang’s house and shops in the market area were set ablaze killing one person. A protester also succumbed to injuries sustained during a police firing. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa acted quickly. On December 26, tripartite talks were held by the State government with CEM Tuliram Ronghang and Karbi civil society leaders and representatives.

Frontline accessed the minutes of the meeting. It was decided that KAAC will file an affidavit, which had been pending, in the Gauhati High Court cases over the council’s 2024 decision to evict 2,000 families. It was decided that administration will carry out evictions on all government land belonging to schools or land that had been allotted to government departments, move all government offices from the PGR and VGR areas, cancel the trade licenses of shops located in the area and fence off vacant PGR and VGR land.

But, the local Karbi residents say that most of these promises were not met. “We have seen that more than lakhs of bighas have been freed by the State government. There is 1,16,000 bighas of PGR area here, then there is irrigation land, different government departmental land. We are asking that those illegal encroachers be evicted from there,” Litsong said.

“What I can say is that the Chief Minister is not at all interested in evicting right now. Most of these people are BJP voters. The CM doesn’t want to disappoint the Bihari voters,” claimed Angtong.

A political dilemma?

The Kopili river, the largest south-bank tributary of the river Brahmaputra, cuts through Kheroni. The PGR areas are located on one side of the river. Branching out from the bridge that goes across the river, the Kheroni road on both sides is lined with houses owned by non-tribals and government offices. For the most part, the area beyond the houses are empty grasslands. Several government offices along Kheroni road including a branch of the State Bank of India now lie vacant. On the other side of the bridge is a market area, which became the epicentre of the December violence. The residents here mainly belong to the Karbi community.

According to Pawan Kumar, the elected member of Autonomous Council from Kopili—the KAAC seat from Kheroni, as of 2022 there were 42,003 voters in the area, out of which 18,287 were Hindi-speaking, 10,796 belonged to the Karbi community, 3,506 were Nepali, 2066 were Bengali, 1040 Assamese, 1393 Dimasa, and the rest belonged to other communities including tribes. Kumar, himself, is a third-generation Bihari migrant in Kheroni and had been a KAAC member since 2017.

“The Sixth Schedule’s code of conduct doesn’t say that non-tribals can’t get land rights. If I am a non-tribal, I can get land rights by permission of the CEM or the council’s executive committee [if the land in question is over 50 bighas],” he said.

Back in February 2024, the Rachnatmak Nonia Sanyukta Sangh (RNSS) had submitted a memorandum to President Droupadi Murmu in which they had asked for the “protection and recognition of land rights of settlers on VGR and PGR in West Karbi Anglong district, Assam, who settled before 2011”. News reports claim that RNSS is backed by the RSS. Frontline could not independently verify this.

“When our State was created there were 85 per cent indigenous people. This has since declined to 51 per cent. People are feeling insecure because of this influx,” said Roland Killing, the president of BJPKarbi Anglong district. In Roland’s view, the council will move to evict the areas once the court permits it. “Maybe they [the non-tribal community] are hardcore supporters of the BJP, but this is now a court issue….The protestors know the government can’t issue an eviction order. They are doing this intentionally because elections are approaching,” Roland said, claiming that all the protestors were from opposition parties.

Meanwhile, the Congress also had to reckon with the issues posed by the events in Kheroni, as it was deciding to form an alliance with All Party Hill Leaders’ Conference (APHLC)—a regional party that has been batting for stronger protections (including for more rigorous implementations of the Sixth Schedule) for tribals in Karbi Anglong.

Just days before the two parties announced their alliance, a member of the Karbi Anglong District Congress Committee expressed their disappointment at the decision, saying it came from the top, “APHLC has played around with the sentiment of the people. When it comes to elections, numbers matter. They (APHLC) will just end up dividing the Karbi votes…if we offer anything to the Karbis, the non-Karbis will get disappointed.”

On March 16, the Congress announced its seat-sharing pact with APHLC on four out of the five Assembly seats from Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong. “We have an understanding from the heart and will contest together. RSS-BJP is anti-tribal and anti-people. They have done a lot of anti-tribal work here. We will defeat them,” said Jones Ingti Kathar, president of APHLC and the candidate from Diphu.

Ahead of the presser, Ratan Engti, the Congress’s Karbi Anglong district president and the candidate from the Bokajan seat told Frontline that an all-party meeting had taken place over the PGR and VGR land issue. “The eviction was a consensus decision taken by all political and many social organisations at the meeting convened by CEM Tuliram Ronghang…[then] why did the triple engine sarkar fail to do evictions? Doubts do arise if there’s been some foul play by the CEM,” Engti said.

In Ronkhang, which encompasses Kheroni, the CEM himself is contesting against the Congress’ Augustine Enghee. Litsong hit out at all the parties, “They are all against the movement. One side says that the movement is supported by the BJP, the other side says it’s the opposition. When a person comes into the movement, they are just Karbi.”

A long-standing grouse

Between 1951 and 1952, the region now known as Karbi Anglong—then part of the United Mikir and North Cachar Hills—was accorded Sixth Schedule status. This followed the enactment of the Assam Autonomous Districts (Constitution of District Councils) Rules, 1951, which established the legal framework for the area’s first autonomous district council to be formally inaugurated the following year.

Other tribal areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Mizoram were also declared to be under the Sixth Schedule. The purpose of the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution is to “protect tribes, their population and their interests” through an “autonomous governance structure”.

Karbi residents of Kheroni complain that protections under Sixth Schedule have been weakened. “They [non-tribals] came as labourers, made houses here. Then their families were able to get documents. Also, how could they win in Sixth Scheduled areas,” asks Ridip Engti, an auto-rickshaw driver who has been involved in the protests. “We won’t support the BJP. No eviction, no vote,” said Bikram Rongphar, a social worker. Horen Kro, a shopkeeper, said, “There needs to be a new government…Himanta hasn’t helped us tribals. What he says, he does the opposite.”

Frontline also met a family from the Bihari community, who were displaced and had been living in make-shift tents since the violence. “They burnt seven houses on PWD [Public Works Department] land. The government hasn’t done anything to help us,” said Dilip Sahni, a daily wage worker adding that the community has been living here since the 1970s. “In Rongkhang, the demographics show that only 50 per cent of the population are Karbis. Though they likely won’t vote for Tuliram, an alliance could end up splitting those votes,” said Litsong.

Angana Chakrabarti is a Guwahati-based independent multimedia journalist. She primarily covers the north-eastern region.

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