Assam Assembly Elections 2026 | All 'credible' Hindu leaders will join BJP in next five years: CM Himanta

Guwahati: A day after BJP and its allies registerd a stunning victory in Assam with 102 seats in the 126-member Assembly, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday claimed that all "credible" Hindu leaders will switch to BJP in the next five years.

Sarma made the statement while referring to defeat of Debabrata Saikia, the leader of the Congress legislature party and son of former Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia in Nazira in Upper Assam.

"Now that he has lost the elections, I think he will come to BJP. In fact, all credible Hindu leaders in Congress will come to BJP in the next five years," Sarma said while listing the reasons leading to debacle of Congress in the polls.

Sarma said that two major "blunders" committed by Congress led to its worst performance in the past 25 years.

"People did not like Congress's promise of establishing notun bor Axom (new greater Assam). By this, Congress wanted to assimilate the Assamese people with the Bangladeshi miyas and this led the Hindus to vote against the party. People also did not like politicisation of Zubeen Garg's death issue," Sarma said.

In the results announced on Monday, Congress won 19 seats, of which 18 are Muslim candidates and the seats are Muslims-dominated. BJP, on the other hand, increased its tally from 60 in 2021 to 82 this time while its allies AGP and BPF bettered their seat counts to 10 each.

The results were almost exact of what Sarma had predicted before the elections when he said that Congress wouid win only in the 20 to 22 Muslim-majority constituencies.

Gaurav on results

Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on Tuesday told reporters that the party accepts the people's verdict but the results were unexpected.

"The people cannot believe the results of this election. The margin of votes is such that people cannot trust the outcomes. We also cannot believe the results, and the public shares this disbelief. In many constituencies, people thought a candidate would win by a small margin, but the difference has been huge. People, journalists, and intellectuals were discussing that many constituencies would see a 50-50 fight."

"We expected neck-to-neck fights. People thought results in many seats would be within 5,000 to 10,000 votes, but the gap is vast. We will have to review the results of several seats in the coming days. In Delhi, Rahul Gandhi has pointed out negligence regarding voter lists in other states. We will try to gather collective experience together," Gogoi said, announcing a special meeting on May 9 to review the results.

"In the last election, we took a resolution for a New 'Bor Asom' (Greater Assam). This resolution is not just an election slogan. We will work on how to implement this resolution even without being in power. The people of Upper-Lower Assam and Barak Valley, across various ethnic groups, have many hopes and aspirations. We have heard them in the last 10 months. We want to bring change based on that. It is true that if we were in power, our capacity would have been greater; nevertheless, we remain committed to the resolution we took."

Gogoi further said, "I want to tell the BJP that they should not think the Congress party has sat down. From today, the Congress party is ready to go back to the people. We are preparing strategies to undertake new programs in various places in the coming period. We will keep a sharp eye on the activities of the new government and continue to speak out against the Chief Minister's corruption."