Guwahati, Oct. 12 -- Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday countered the opposition's claims, defended the electoral roll updates, and fired a scathing volley at Congress over the alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and action against Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.

Sarma, while addressing the media, defended the necessity of the SIR process, attributing it to decades of demographic changes driven by cross-border infiltration.

Citing historical parliamentary admissions, Sarma emphasised, "Why does the country need an SIR today? When Indrajit Gupta was Home Minister, he himself stated in Parliament that the names of 30 lakh foreign nationals were included in the ...