Guwahati, Jan 5: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led alliance has strong winning prospects in as many as 103 of the state’s 126 Assembly constituencies ahead of the 2026 Assam Assembly elections, likely to be held in March–April.
However, Sarma cautioned that it was still too early to make definitive electoral projections, as alliance formations and seat-sharing arrangements are yet to be finalised by both the ruling coalition and the opposition.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a programme at Dimoria in Kamrup Metropolitan district, the Chief Minister said the BJP’s electoral prospects had improved significantly following the delimitation exercise.
He claimed that the party’s potential tally had increased from around 90 seats earlier to 103 seats now. “The increase of 13 to 15 seats is a direct outcome of the delimitation exercise completed in 2023, which involved redrawing Lok Sabha and Assembly constituency boundaries without changing the total number of seats,” Sarma said.
He added that while the BJP-led alliance was confident of a strong performance in 103 constituencies, there were around 22 seats where the party would put up a symbolic fight without necessarily expecting victory.
“The final verdict will rest with the people. Whether we win almost all these seats or are limited to 90 or even 80 per cent will be decided by voters,” he said.
During the interaction, Sarma also took a swipe at Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi, remarking that the opposition leader appeared to be overly focused on him.
Referring to Gogoi’s background, Sarma said he found it amusing that the Congress leader was giving him so much attention.
Responding to a recent poll projection suggesting a third consecutive term for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Assam, Sarma reiterated that the timing was not appropriate for such forecasts.
He noted that neither the NDA nor the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) had finalised their alliances or clarified seat-sharing arrangements. While acknowledging that the projection indicated favourable prospects for the BJP, he said the political scenario would become clearer by February.
Earlier, an NGO, People’s Pulse Research Organisation, in its first tracker poll for the 2026 Assembly elections, projected that the BJP could win between 69 and 74 seats, well ahead of the Congress, which was estimated to secure 25 to 29 seats.
At present, the BJP has 64 members in the Assam Assembly, while its allies—the Asom Gana Parishad, United People’s Party Liberal and Bodoland People’s Front—have nine, seven and three MLAs respectively.
In the opposition, the Congress holds 26 seats, the All India United Democratic Front has 15, the CPI(M) has one MLA, and there is one Independent legislator from Raijor Dal.
