A bike rally was carried out in Assam’s Sivasagar town by the Sivasagar unit of the All Tai Ahom Students’ Union (ATASU), making demands for scheduled tribe (ST) status for the Tai Ahom community.

If the ST status is not accorded by the state government before the upcoming state assembly elections next year, the students’ union warned to increase the agitation across the state.

Slogans of, “No ST, no rest”, “ATASU Zindabad”, “BJP go back” and “BJP Murdabad” were shouted by the ATASU members on bikes across the town.

“We are carrying out this protest against the betrayal by the state and union governments”, said ATASU leader Basanta Gogoi.

“The demand for ST status for the Tai Ahom community has been a long-standing one, but the state and union governments have only misled us so far.”