Assam Assembly elections 2026: Bid to woo new voters in CM Himanta’s long-time constituency Jalukbari

A huge hoarding of ‘Akou ebar BJP sorkar’ (BJP government once more) greets visitors as they emerge from the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Assam’s Guwahati. However, there’s little else giving away the fact that it’s election season here barring an odd party flag or empty booth. The road to the city is festooned with more welcome messages, flags and posters for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah during one of their numerous visits to inaugurate some project or lay the foundation stone for another — a hallmark of the BJP’s signature style ‘permanent campaign’. There’s a cartographic change, this time, though.

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The airport area now marks the western limits of Legislative Assembly Constituency 37, Jalukbari, the seat that has sent Himanta Biswa Sarma to the Assam Assembly without fail since 2001. The 2023 delimitation exercise has left the Chief Minister with a newer set of voters to woo. Some regions from the erstwhile Guwahati West constituency have been incorporated, some ceded to adjoining Assembly segments.

Places such as Agyathuri, Mandakata and Changsari on the north bank of the Brahmaputra in Guwahati are out; and areas such as Azara, Dharapur, and Garigaon, an old village of more than 14,000 residents, are in.

Mr. Sarma filed his nomination papers on the very first day, March 20, after a massive roadshow, his wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, son Nandil, and BJP’s Guwahati MP Bijuli Kalita Medhi in tow. “I first contested from Jalukbari in 1996 and lost. Since 2001, I have been winning continuously. Despite delimitation changes, I believe I will continue to receive the blessings of the people,” he said en route. Launching the second phase of the party’s Jana Ashirwad Yatra from his constituency three days later, the Chief Minister asked Jalukbari residents to bear with him given that he would be helming the campaign across the State.

With Mr. Sarma criss-crossing the State as campaigner-in-chief for the BJP-led alliance, the canvassing on home turf fell upon Ms. Sarma, who has been micromanaging things and touring the constituency extensively.

The Chief Minister is up against two other candidates, Bidisha Neog of the Congress and Dipika Das of the Bhumi Adhikar Party, contesting as an Independent. Ms. Neog, a grassroots worker who worked at Gauhati University, has struck a combative note, hitting out at the BJP workers for alleged violence at a bike rally in the Pandu area and petitioning the Election Commission to cancel Mr. Sarma’s candidature for “deliberate, wilful and corrupt non-disclosure and suppression of assets and liabilities, including assets situated outside India”.

A win for Mr. Sarma is, however, well-nigh a foregone conclusion. Seated beside the Shri Dol Gobindo Mandir in Garal Baruapara, Dharapur, Jugal Das, a teacher at the local lower primary school, and Girish Chandra Das, a retired bank officer, beam with pride at the prospect of the Chief Minister representing them in the Assembly. They claim he will cast his vote at a school in their area.

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Grooming Garigaon

Messrs Das are already sold on the idea of ‘Himanta Biswa Sarma, MLA, Jalukbari’, but the challenge for the BJP is to ensure healthy numbers in order to match or better the CM’s six-figure margin from 2021. This is where Garigaon comes into play. Part of the peri-urban expansion of Guwahati, Garigaon and its fringes count caste Hindu Assamese and Bengali-origin Muslims among residents but it’s khilonjia or tholuwa (‘indigenous’) Muslims who make up the majority.

“We are older than the Ahoms [who came to Assam in the medieval times and ruled for almost 600 years]. There’s a mazar (shrine) of a Sufi saint in Garigaon that dates back to 700 AD,” claims Hukum Shan Ali Boxi, the local councillor who was aligned with the Assam Jatiya Parishad earlier but is now firmly with the ruling party.

The party machinery has been put to work, he says. Membership has swelled in recent months and the area is witness to daily door-to-door campaigns and corner meets ahead of polling day, April 9. The Chief Minister’s wife addressed a sizeable gathering at the local Idgah ground on April 3 besides visiting a nearby namghar [a community prayer hall for followers of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva].

There are visible changes in Garigaon since the 2023 delimitation: paved roads with street lights lined alongside. “The local youth clubs, graveyard and madrasa have received funds too,” says Taher Ali, who runs a corner shop. “Many women are beneficiaries of the Orunodoi monthly financial assistance scheme,” he adds.

Mr. Boxi says the development work is translating into votes: “The party got more than 1,000 votes from the area in the 2024 Lok Sabha election as against only 200-odd votes earlier.”

Iman Ali, in his seventies and a new member of the BJP Bishwabidyalaya Mandal Minority Morcha, concedes some old loyalists may still vote for the Congress. “We should deem ourselves fortunate that we now have the opportunity to elect our own Chief Minister. Mama [as Mr. Sarma is popularly called] is winning anyway. It’s a question of whether we join him or stay on the sidelines,” he says.