The BJP-led NDA’s landslide victory in Assam panchayat elections has sounded an alarm in the opposition particularly the Congress camp ahead of the 2026 assembly polls. The BJP-AGP alliance won 300 out of 397 Zila Parishad seats (76 per cent) and 1,436 out of 2,192 Anchalik Panchayat seats (66 per cent), marking a big increase from their 2018 performance.
The performance has come as a big boost for Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma under whose leadership the party would again go to polls in March 2026. The BJP alone won 272 seats, while the AGP took 28.
In contrast, the Congress’s share plummeted from 35 per cent in 2018 to just 18 per cent, with the party failing to win a single Zila Parishad seat in Jorhat in upper Assam, the stronghold of its deputy Lok Sabha leader, Gaurav Gogoi and Ahom community.
For the Congress, the results are a wake-up call. Its inability to counter the BJP’s narrative, has left the party struggling for answers.
Sarma’s aggressive campaigning and BJP’s grass root organisational strength focus on delivery of social welfare schemes like Orunodoi and Nijut Moina, and strategic alliances with local groups seem to have worked in party’s favour. Moreover, Sarma’s attack on Gogoi targeting his wife over her alleged Pakistani connection appears to have led to polarisation of voters.
What should have come as a pleasant surprise for the BJP is the fact that it even won in the minority dominated seats in several districts. This has also been attributed to the division of the Muslim votes between the Congress and the Badruddin Ajmal’s party AIUDF. The AIUDF has been able to stem its decline since the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The focus will now shift to the assembly polls. Sarma claims that the party would win 100 out of the 126 assembly seats. Last time it had won 64 seats. As BJP has won big time in Jorhat there are already calls for Sarma to contest from the region.
The 2026 will be the big test for Sarma as it would be first polls with him being the chief minister unlike last time when Sarbananda Sonowal, the then CM, led the campaign.
The 2025 panchayat polls were more than a local election, the BJP is likely to hard sell them as a referendum on Sarma’s leadership ahead of the 2026 assembly polls when the party would be aiming for a historic third term. How the Congress manages its messaging in the next 10 months would be key to its performance.