Taking a U-turn from what he said six weeks ago, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Sunday claimed that there was not a single Bangladeshi national in the state.Addressing a rally at Juria in Nagaon district, Gogoi said that the claim by various political parties and civil society groups that there had been a huge influx of illegal Bangaldeshi nationals to Assam was nothing but false propaganda.The chief minister's statement, however, contradicts his admission on October 20 that 61,774 foreigners were detected in the state between 1985 and July 2012. Releasing a white paper on foreigners' issue brought out by the Home and Political Department, Gogoi had said that various tribunals from 1985 to July 2012 declared 61,774 persons as foreigners and this figure included those who crossed the Assam-Bangladesh border and entered Assam between 1966 and 1971 and the post-March 25, 1971 migrants.According to the Assam Accord, migrants who came to Assam between 1966 and 1971 are not to be deported but to be given time to register themselves as Indian citizens while those who came after 1971 were to be pushed back or deported. Of the 61,774 persons declared foreigners, 29,237 entered Assam after 1971 but only 2,442 have been deported or pushed back till now, mentioned the white paper.So the big question remains: what happened to those 26,795 illegal migrants who have not been deported yet if there is no Bangladeshi national in the state?The issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh has again come to the forefront of Assam politics. Between July and August, the violent clash between Bodo tribes and alleged illegal immigrants claimed over 100 lives in three districts of Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts and the adjoining district Dhuburi while 10 more people died as violence flared up in Kokrajhar in the first week of November.On December 2, volunteers of All Assam Students Union detained and handed over to police 17 suspected nationals of Bangladesh in Golaghat district even as the chief minister, in the adjoining district, denied existence of a single foreigner in the state.Meanwhile, a visiting all-party delegation of 12 Members of Parliament from Bangladesh told mediapersons in Guwahati on December 1 that the Indian government had never taken up the issue of illegal influx to Assam from Bangladesh."The Government of India has never raised the issue of infiltration at diplomatic levels with Bangladesh. It has never asked Bangladesh to take back the migrants," said Rashed Khan Menon, chief of Bangladesh Workers Party.This revelation also exposes the Assam Chief Minister's double speak as Gogoi had earlier claimed that the issue of illegal influx was raised with the Bangladesh government during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit in September 2011. "When there was a hue and cry over the land transfer treaty with Bangladesh during the prime minister's visit to Dhaka, Gogoi claimed that the issue of illegal infiltration to Assam had been discussed at the highest level. Now the statement by the Bangladesh MPs has proved that the Chief Minister lied to us," says Samujjal Bhattacharya, adviser, All Assam Students Union.