Guwahati, Aug. 18 -- The Bodoland Janajati Suraksha Manch (BJSM) on Monday called on the people of the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) to reject BTC chief Promod Boro and his party in the upcoming elections, accusing him and the Assam government of betraying the state's "real khilonjia" - the aboriginal tribes of Assam.

In a statement, BJSM working president Daorao Dekhreb Narzary alleged that the government and certain Assamese intellectuals were attempting to "manufacture new khilonjia" by recognising later migrants as "sons of the soil," thereby depriving the genuine aboriginal tribes of their constitutional rights.

Explaining the term, Narzary said khilonjia refers to the aboriginal people who are the original settlers of Assam, ...