by Nava Thakuria
As Assam completed the single-phase, largely peaceful polling on 9 April 2026 to elect 126 representatives for the State legislative assembly, the focus shifted to the probable outcome as both the ruling and opposition parties are claiming the result in their favour, citing the reason of an all-time high voters’ turnout (85.96 percent) in the north-eastern State.
Currently, the fate of 722 candidates representing different political parties and independent contenders remains sealed in the electronic voting machines. The outcome will surface on 4 May, counting day set by the Election Commission of India for general elections in Assam, Keralam, the Puducherry union territory as well as bye-elections in Karnataka’s Bagalkot and Davanagere South seats, Nagaland’s Koridang and Tripura’s Dharmanagar constituency. The result of Tamil Nadu single-phase assembly polls scheduled for 23 April and two phases West Bengal elections (23 and 29 April) will also be available on the same day. For Assam, the magic number 64 in the assembly was easily retained by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance in the 2021 elections and formed the government for the second time in Dispur with 75 members. This time, they are expecting more.
Recently, while addressing election rallies in north Bengal localities, Assam’s incumbent chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed that the saffron party-led alliance will gain decisive victories in both the bordering States. The outspoken BJP leader predicted wins in nearly 100 seats in Assam and around 200 in the 294-member West Bengal assembly. Earlier, BJP Assam president Dilip Saikia expected to win a commanding majority for the National Democratic Alliance nominees. Terming the visibly high voter turnout as pro-incumbency in nature, the top leaders of BJP allies (Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland People’s Front) also predicted to win over 90 seats for the NDA. On the other hand, the Indian National Congress-led opposition alliance claimed to win in over 70 seats to return to power after a decade.
Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi, while citing the BJP’s two-term anti-incumbency, continued harassment to religious minority families, and more precisely personal corruption charges against CM Sarma and his family, termed the unprecedented turnout in polls in favour of change. The deputy-leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha targeted Sarma personally as his party senior Pawan Khera made some sensational allegations against the chief minister’s wife on 5 April. Mentionable is that Khera at a formal press meet in New Delhi (and later in Guwahati too) alleged that Riniki Bhuyan Sarma was holding multiple active foreign passports and also undisclosed investments to the tune of million dollars in foreign countries. Gogoi also opined that since then Sarma appeared panicked and went on making abusive public statements.
However, both Sarma and his wife denounced the allegations and challenged in the court with a forgery and conspiracy case. Facing the heat, Khera approached Telangana High Court and even received a short period transit anticipatory bail, but it was stayed by the Supreme Court of India. Khera was asked to approach a competent court in Assam for relief. Now Sarma urges Khera to comply with legal procedures by appearing before an appropriate court. Meanwhile, Sarma expressed dissatisfaction with the police forces as to why they allowed Khera to leave Guwahati after an FIR was lodged. He publicly stated that soon after his return to the CMO, the top police personnel will be made accountable for the failure.
Going beyond the limit, Sarma also announced to file a public interest litigation against the ECI to raise serious issues relating to Khera’s timing (just four days ahead of Assam polls) and intentions to defame his family. A law graduate himself, Sarma claimed that the allegations were made on the specific period to influence the poll outcomes. He believes that the ECI should issue guidelines while addressing such matters as it may have negative impacts on electoral outcomes to the party-concerned. Once a Congress loyal before joining the saffron party in 2015 echoed a strong version that if any political party is proved to deliberately spread wrong information just ahead of polls to misguide the electorates, its registration should be cancelled.
The opposition leaders immediately picked up his PIL comment against the ECI to criticize Sarma for allegedly undermining the constitutional institutions and democratic principles with such comments. Debabrata Saikia, leader of the opposition in Assam assembly condemned Sarma’s views as arbitrary and oppressive. With his arrogance to power, Sarma degraded his constitutional position, asserted Saikia. Political observers also commented that Sarma has somehow given an opportunity to the national opposition leaders to renew their backlash on the ECI in the backdrop of a recent impeachment move forwarded by over 190 parliamentarians against the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
