A third time in a row, Himanta Biswa Sarma-led BJP of Assam wins a historic third consecutive term, a huge victory for the BJP in the northeast state.
On the BJP side, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) managed to win a majority in the 126-member Assam Assembly and represented yet another landslide win for the BJP to carry forward into the 2029 national election.
By Monday, early and final counting numbers indicated a large majority of BJP members are in office, comprising Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People's Front (BPF) members, with BJP taking the lead in the nation. The NDA easily crossed the 64-seat mark, it was reported, and the Congress and opposition coalition were less harsh on the party.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma declared that the victory had become a “hat-trick with a century” and expressed gratitude to voters who had once more trusted the BJP government. Prime Minister Modi welcomed it as a firm affirmation of the NDA’s development agenda and governance model in Assam.
The BJP’s campaign in Assam has been centred on infrastructure, welfare, regional identity, law and order and economic development. It also noted significant developmental milestones in the last decade, including rising connectivity and investment, as well as a push to make Assam the gateway point to Northeast India and Southeast Asia.
The Congress took some of the most damaging blows, but several of these landed in key constituencies where only a handful of opposition leaders fell short or were defeated. Assam’s Gaurav Gogoi was defeated in Jorhat by the BJP candidate Hitendra Nath Goswami in a victory that some attribute to a smaller version of the kind of broad political transformation now sweeping through the state.
The BJP’s enduring success in Assam is creditable, political analysts believe, largely due to the party’s organising effectiveness, its booth-level orientation and the popularity of Himanta Biswa Sarma himself amongst voters. The result is also strengthening the BJP’s hold on power over Northeast India, where the party has made small incremental gains in the last decade.
In Assam, within a state, the cheers reverberated across BJP offices, with party staff and leaders celebrating the verdict as an emblem of continuity, stability and development. However, by now, the BJP must have come here; it has been able to exercise its power it has, it has solidified its position as the most powerful ruling party in state politics and now, the next five years under Himanta Biswa Sarma.
