Assam elections turned into a rivalry between Chief Minister Sarma and Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, despite anti-incumbency tendencies, the results depend on manipulation and sharp polarization.
What is going to be captured in the EVMs in Assam on April 9 does not seem to be clear even in the last week. In particular, the Congress-led opposition alliance is relying on the issues of inflation, unemployment, agriculture and anti-incumbency due to long-term tension. But with the help of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s clever political chessboard, BJP is confident of retaining the throne in the most important state for its North-East politics. Sarma has not only succeeded in breaking former Congress President Bhupen Bora and Lok Sabha member Pradyut Bordoloi, but has also brought important tribal communities together. They have also resorted to tactics to attract minority votes through sharp polarization and alleged changes in the voter list. According to his main rival Gaurav Gogoi of Congress, Badruddin has also played an important role in deciding the tickets of Ajmal’s party for the distribution of minority votes. He has even done the miracle of fielding a Muslim candidate from the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) that is different from its political stance.
Residents of which country: Temporary homes of people evicted from Hasila Beel in Goalpara district of Assam
Actually, this charisma is the capital of Sarma, the political master player of Assam and North-East, with the help of which he has made inroads of BJP in the entire North-East. Therefore, the BJP may not even think of destabilizing him, even if its own core cadre and RSS workers become unhappy. Some of them have also filed independent nomination this time.
It is interesting to look at the surprising mannerisms and political abilities of Sarma, who has such a controversial or rather colorful personality. He is unmatched not only in manipulation but also in manipulation. He has no equal in changing colour. He will be the only one who can dispute the color of the cover of the Constitution. On May 17, 2024, he had said, “The cover of the original copy of the Indian Constitution is blue. The cover of the original Constitution of China is red. Does Rahul Gandhi show the Constitution of China? We have to investigate it.”
Such a thing from the mouth of a person like Sarma, who has studied political science and law, may surprise many people, but perhaps his politics can only be achieved by giving up the show. However, fact checkers pointed out that the copy of the Constitution repeatedly shown by Rahul Gandhi before the 2024 general elections or later was printed by the Eastern Book Company of Lucknow. But this does not make any difference to Sarma. They continue their work in their own way.
Not only this, almost a decade ago too, similar political statements used to come from Sarma’s mouth, when being a Congressman, he was in opposition to the BJP. He was saying in a political rally on March 29, 2014, “In Assam, water flows from the tap pipes, but in Gujarat, the blood of Muslims flows from those pipes…You pray to Allah and give victory to Bhupen Bora in Tezpur. Save the country, so that such a murderer never becomes the Prime Minister…You pray this in your namaz.” There was a lot of uproar over this statement, then the Election Commission sent him a notice.
United: Gaurav Gogoi with Rahul Gandhi
Sarma joined the BJP on 21 August 2015, exactly seventeen months after this statement. Then the script flipped. His target in this election is Muslims. During a recent election rally, he wrote on Twitter, “The same machines that are showering flowers today will wreak havoc on infiltrators and encroachers in the days to come.” On February 7, an AI-generated video titled “Point Blank” was posted on the Assam BJP’s handle, showing them pointing guns at people wearing caps, with slogans like “Bedard” and “outsider-free Assam”. It was removed after criticism. An image in this photo resembled that of Gaurav Gogoi, son of Tarun Gogoi. In January 2026, he had said, “Destroy the Mian Muslims” by every means so that they are forced to leave Assam. Sarma had also said that BJP workers should fill ‘Form 7’ (to remove names from the voter list) in large numbers.
Russel Hussain of Raijor Dal says that in a picture, ten year old Sarma is seen standing behind Assam movement leaders Prafulla Kumar Mahant and Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. Born in 1969 in a Brahmin family of Jorhat, Sarma is the middle of five brothers. His father worked in the state industries department.
Hussain says, “Since childhood, he started hanging around big leaders. At the age of ten, he started delivering the messages of All Assam Students Union (AASU) leaders here and there, because no one doubted him when he was a child.” Sarma first associated with Mahant and Phukan. But in later days, he left both of them far behind.
Akhil Gogoi of Raijor Dal
Just days after the 2016 election results, the BJP moved to form the North-East Democratic Alliance and Amit Shah made Sarma its convenor. Given the responsibility of expanding the reach of the party, Sarma played a very special role in the rise of the party in Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
Actually, Sarma was successful in gaining good influence with all the leaders during his stay in Congress. Due to that he has succeeded in weakening the party from within. According to a leader, he did or has been doing this at the instigation of RSS. In 2021, BJP contested the elections under the leadership of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, but Sarma managed to wrest the chair from Sonowal with the support of most of the MLAs.
According to a senior Congress leader, “Sarma fits into the BJP’s politics of polarization, even though he is an ‘outsider’. His every move is to reassure the RSS so that they consider him their own. He usually goes out of his way to show loyalty.”
To know the background of Sarma becoming a powerful leader in Assam, it is important to look at the political turmoil of Assam in the 1980s. He had won the elections of the prestigious Cotton College Students Union under the banner of AASU. He was also booked in two cases under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act or TADA due to his links with the United Liberation Front of Assam (Alpha). But in July 1991, the then Chief Minister Hiteshwar Saikia granted amnesty to 650 Alpha cadres, so that 14 government officials held hostage could be released. Sarma also got pardon in that. Later both the cases were closed because the records related to them went missing. After that his political career continued to grow.
Sarma first contested the election in 1996 against Bhrigu Kumar Phukan, reportedly at the behest of Chief Minister Saikia, and lost, but later won by 10,000 votes in 2001, when Phukan switched parties. His candidature was initially opposed by Tarun Gogoi, who considered him a Saikia man. Later Gogoi agreed. Sarma rose rapidly in Congress; In 2002 he became a Minister of State and by 2006 became a Cabinet Minister. After Gogoi’s surgery in 2010, he took over most of the day-to-day work of the government and started meeting MLAs regularly. When Congress got 79 seats in 2011, Sarma started considering himself Gogoi’s successor. But Gogoi started promoting his son Gaurav. During these years, Sarma’s name came up in the Saradha chit fund scam. His accused Sudipta Sen said that he had “taken at least Rs 3 crore from us.” In 2014, the CBI raided his house. However, Sarma denies all these allegations.
By 2012, Sarma had started claiming that he had the support of 58 MLAs. But, Rahul Gandhi refused to bow down to “pressure or blackmail” and supported Gogoi. In July 2014, Sarma resigned along with 38 MLAs and was appointed by Governor J.B. Patnaik that he would play the role of “constructive opposition” within the Assembly.
Meanwhile, in July 2015, Louis Berger, an American consultancy firm, had confessed to paying bribe of about one million dollars for projects in Assam and Goa. At the time of giving the bribe, Sarma was the minister of the concerned department. BJP raised this issue very vigorously. But with his entry into the party, the party forgot this issue. In 2016, BJP formed the government by winning 60 seats. The CBI was investigating the bribery scandal but reportedly in 2017, some important files were reported missing and the investigation was halted. The investigating officer in this case was later suspended and arrested for leaking confidential information in response to an RTI.
At that time, BJP state president Siddharth Bhattacharya, who was denied ticket from Guwahati East in 2026, said, “Ram Madhav made the entire plan and I completed it.” In 2014, he said, “We wanted a sure shot guarantee of government formation, so we had to include him in the BJP.” To win, it was necessary to break the Congress. There was opposition within the BJP also regarding the inclusion of Sarma in the party. Sonowal was not at all ready for this.
Sarma soon met Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Sarma was made the convenor of the party’s election management committee. Sarma became the health minister in the Sonowal-led government. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he was accused of fraud in the purchase of PPE kits given to a company associated with his wife. The allegation was that the firm got the order at inflated rates and the company supplied only a small part of it. Akhil Gogoi’s Raijor Dal described the scam as “a drop in the mouth of a camel”. Both Sarma and his wife clearly denied any such wrongdoing.
Within two and a half months of Sarma joining BJP, nine Congress MLAs changed sides. Since then, at least 18 more leaders have joined the BJP. Piyush Hazarika is also among them. Bhupen Bora and Pradyut Bordoloi have recently joined BJP before the elections.
Many leaders also told that they may spit fire against Mian Muslims, but maintain secret relations with Muslim leaders. Recently, three MLAs of Ajmal’s All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) cross-voted for the NDA’s third Rajya Sabha candidate. These MLAs had signed the nomination papers of UPPL chief Pramod Boro, who later joined the India block. Assam Jatiya Parishad leader Lurinjyoti Gogoi termed AIDUF as ‘108’ (emergency helpline) to BJP.
According to Hiren Gohain, a senior sociologist from Assam, Sarma is an expert in the art of planting his own agents and informers in the opposing camps. He says, “According to Sarma, power is achieved only when every small and big rift related to social, caste and communal grounds is healed.”
Stephen Lakra, former president of the All Adivasi Students Association and now in the Congress, says Sarma “moves forward by creating problems” so that he can take advantage. According to Lakra, after becoming chief minister, Sarma tried to create a divide between the listed tribal communities and those demanding tribal status. Existing tribal communities include Bodo, Karbi, Mising and Rabha, while communities like Ahom, Rajvanshi, Moran, Motak and Chutia have been demanding inclusion in the list of Scheduled Tribes for a long time. “Sarma instigates them to start the movement and then calls them for negotiations,” says Lakra. It also incites existing tribal groups to oppose the inclusion of these communities in the list.
There is resentment among the old party workers due to Sarma’s efforts to bring Congress leaders to BJP. Former state vice president Jayant Das left the party after not getting the ticket from Dispur. The ticket was given to Pradyut Bordoloi. Now Jayant Das is an independent candidate from Dispur.
Hiren Gohain says, “Sarma is very ambitious. They can do anything for power.” Former Assam Director General of Police Harekrishna Deka had once arrested Sarma in his youth. His opinion about Sarma is, “A political master, but completely devoid of principles.”
