India, March 31 -- Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday promised to use a 1950 law more stringently to expel Bangladeshi Miyas, a pejorative term for Bengali-speaking Muslims, and rid the state of them, as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a 31-point manifesto for the April 9 assembly polls.

The government has used the Immigrants (Expulsion From Assam) Act, 1950, to bypass foreign tribunals and "push back" those deemed as "foreigners" to Bangladesh since last year.

Sarma highlighted the promises in the manifesto, calling the stringent implementation of the 1950 law, which empowers district authorities to remove undocumented foreigners within 24 hours of their detection, the BJP's foremost task if it is vote...