Assam Assembly Elections 2026 | Tussle between regional, national parties to 'safeguard' Assamese identity

Guwahati: As Assam prepares to elect a new government, regionalism remains a core issue for the state, which has been grappling with concerns over safeguarding its "identity" from the threat of "outsiders", mainly illegal migrants, for decades.

The relevance of regional political parties has come under question over the years with all major such outfits, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), aligning with national parties.

"Hijacking" of the primary issue of "Asomiya Jatiyotabad" (Assamese nationalism) by the national parties, coupled with the more expansive resources at their disposal, have made the regional parties to take sides with them for electoral survival, political analysts maintained.

The "failure" of AGP to carve a strong path for regional forces even after leading two governments in the last four decades has also led to these parties being "sidelined", they said.

"Protection of culture, language, and identity has always been a concern for the Assamese people. And this has been used by different political dispensations in different manner," columnist and political analyst Brojen Deka said, speaking to PTI.

The "threat" to the indigenous people from Bengali-speaking Muslims, mostly of Bangladesh origin, has been viewed as the most prominent in recent decades, and continues to remain so, he maintained.

Elections have been fought and governments formed with the purported promise of solving this issue as recent as the current one, Deka claimed.

"If you see the BJP's sweeping entry into power in 2016, the poll plank was 'jati, mati, bheti' (community, land, home), a direct reference to safeguarding the indigenous identity. And in 2026 elections also, it is still promising to act against illegal Bangladeshis from the state," the columnist pointed out.

It was with this assurance of identifying and deporting illegal foreigners that the AGP led governments twice in 1985 and 1996, a party formed by leaders who were at the forefront of the anti-infiltration, six-year-long Assam agitation, Nava Kumar Mahanta, retired professor of Nowgong College (now Nagaon University) said.

"It was a regional party which led the government for two terms. But now, it is merely a smaller ally to the BJP. In the last two Assembly elections, we have seen that the party has been contesting in only 26 seats out of total of 126," he said.

"And what is more worrying now is that this year, 13 out of its 26 candidates are Muslims and many of them Bengali-speaking ones, a community which the AGP had earlier viewed with suspicion as being illegal migrants," Mahanta said.

He added that AGP had a secular outlook since its formation, but had always distanced itself from the Bengali-speaking Muslims.

"This seems to have gradually reversed as one feels that in the pursuit of power by a few leaders, the AGP is being used to woo the community to ensure more numbers for the ruling alliance," the retired professor said.

The AGP has also deviated from its core identity of propagating "regionalism" by partnering with the BJP for over a decade now, a party known for its Hindutva brand of politics and promoting uniform codes, the analyst said.

Other regional parties, like the Raijor Dal and the Assam Jatiya Parishad, ostensibly formed to fight for Assamese identity at the beginning of this decade, have aligned with the opposition Congress, a party originally blamed for creating the illegal migrants problem in the state for the sake of 'vote bank'.

Deka maintained that the seed for the regional parties to be overshadowed by the national ones was sowed when the later started projecting itself as the "champions of jatiyotabad".

"It began with former Congress CM Tarun Gogoi, who effectively took away this core issue through work such as updating the NRC and his famous line 'Who is Badruddin Ajmal'," he said.

Gogoi had made the comment ahead of the 2006 state elections, when perfume baron Ajmal floated his own party AIUDF. The party has been tasting electoral success from Bengali-speaking Muslim-dominated areas.

"The same was done by the BJP a few years later when it vowed to protect 'jati, mati, bheti'," Deka added.

Both Deka and Mahanta maintained that relevance of regional politics remains in the state and chances of its revival are also there.

They said that as the average Assamese person continues to be concerned with safeguarding the indigenous culture and language, the national parties generic take on such a contentious yet crucial issue still leaves the space for the regional parties.

"The present AGP leadership has to see beyond the power prism and start working with the principles it was based on. It also needs to attract the young generation to take it forward," Mahanta said.

"The sentiment of 'Asomiya Jatiyotabad' weighs high for the Assamese voter and public. And people understand that a strong regional voice can only safeguard it. It is for the regional parties to fill this gap, which the larger national parties are now attempting to plug," Deka added.