Assam Assembly Elections 2026 | Can Akhil Gogoi prevent BJP's inroads in 'secular' Sivasagar?

Sivasagar has never elected a BJP candidate since Independence and has always preferred an Ahom representing either Congress or the left.

Sivasagar: "Miya khedok, Asom Bochaok, Sivasagar bochaok," (chase out the miyas to save Assam, Sivasagar," billboards with slogans like these welcomes as one takes right from the NH-37 at Bhatiapara towards Sivasagar, a district in Upper Assam considered the nerve centre of "secular and inclusive" Assamese.

Many Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers, whom BJP calls as miyas, were chased out of Sivasagar and nearby districts by pro-BJP organisations after Himanta Biswa Sarma government intensified an eviction drive targeting the community last year.

A door-to-door campaign against a possible identity threat from the Bengali-speaking Muslims to the indigenous communities was also carried out, particularly by BJP and its affiliates.

A billboard against Bengali-speaking Muslims in Sivasagar.

"Let them try but BJP can't win in Sivasagar ever," Nipon Jyoti Baruah, a vendor selling handicraft items outside Rang Ghar, the 18th century Ahom-era amphitheatre, told DH.

"We are against the Bangladeshis. But BJP has made the elections a Hindu-Muslim fight. That ideology is not acceptable here as Muslims and Hindus have lived as one Assamese since the Ahom era," said Afrida Begum, an Assamese Muslim school teacher, who also lives near the Rang Ghar. 

Rang Ghar, an Ahom-era amphitheatre.

The monuments like Rang Ghar dots Sivasagar and the neighbouring Charaideo district as the region was the seat of administration during the Ahom Dynasty, which had ruled Assam for nearly 600 years before annexation to the British in 1826.

"Even during the Ahom era, communal politics was not welcomed," Begum, who teaches Assamese, said.

Poll battle

Sivasagar has never elected a BJP candidate since the Independence and preferred an Ahom representing either Congress or the left. Pranab Gogoi of Congress was elected four times (2001-2016) before Akhil Gogoi, president of Raijor Dal, an anti-BJP party, was elected in 2021.

Akhil had contested the elections from inside the jail as he was arrested by the BJP-led government on charges of being a Maoist for the violent protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2020.

Triangular contest

Akhil, now 50, is seeking the mandate for the second straight term while BJP has fielded Kushal Dowari, a former Ulfa insurgent leader-turned politician. Pradip Hazarika, a veteran leader of Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), an ally of BJP, is the other prominent face. During the campaigns, Akhil, who recently joined the Congress-led Opposition alliance, targetted Dowari flagging the alleged murder cases registered against him as an insurgent. BJP, on the other hand, countered saying Akhil has more "serious" cases registered against him during the agitation he had led, both against the Congress and BJP government.  Many here vouch for Hazarika but says he is unlikely to get votes as AGP is an ally of the BJP. 

"Voting for Hazarika means welcoming BJP indirectly," a government employee, who lives near Talatal Ghar, another Ahom-era monument, told DH.

BJP leaders, however, believes that voters in Sivasagar, particularly the youths, would break the tradition to support BJP given the party's works to save Assam's identity from the "threat of Miyas." For BJP, elections in Assam this time, is a fight to save the Hindus against the "growing threat from the Miyas."

"This time Akhil will lose for sure," Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Tuesday, hours before campaigning for the April 9 elections ended.