New Delhi: The Congress party is gearing up to challenge the BJP’s rule in Assam. The party has formulated an aggressive strategy for the 2026 assembly elections. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has approved it. Rahul Gandhi took time off from the ongoing winter session of Parliament on December 2nd to review the strategy with senior Assamese leaders.
What’s in the pipeline:
Under this plan, a statewide “Voter Contact Campaign” will be launched on December 5th. This campaign will begin in Dibrugarh and cover all the assembly seats in the northeastern state going to polls. During this campaign, the Congress will seek feedback from voters on its proposed manifesto for the 2026 assembly elections and highlight the shortcomings of the state government.
Chhattisgarh Model Adopted:
According to Congress insiders, this voter contact campaign in Assam is modeled after a similar campaign previously launched in Chhattisgarh. The party won the 2018 assembly elections.
Sources said that senior Chhattisgarh leader T.S. Singh Deo, who toured the tribal state to gather input for the party manifesto, will be participating in the Assam voter outreach campaign.
Five teams to tour the entire state:
AICC in-charge for Assam, Jitendra Singh, told ETV Bharat, “The party will begin its outreach campaign on December 5th. We have formed five teams that will tour the entire state to gather feedback on people’s expectations. All senior state leaders will participate in this campaign.”
During this campaign, state leaders will also highlight the state government’s failures to voters. Special attention will be given to the mysterious death of popular singer Zubeen Garg, which has become an emotional issue for residents.
According to party sources, employees of health, education, panchayat, and other key departments in Assam have been protesting for months, demanding their dues. However, they have faced warnings, pay cuts, and threats. Sources said that government employees are the backbone of the state administration and their legitimate concerns should be addressed with dialogue, respect, and prompt action, not hostility.
Campaign Amid Voter List Controversy:
This voter outreach campaign comes amid Assam’s controversial Special Revision of Voter Lists, which has raised fears within the Congress party that the ruling BJP plans to include outsiders in the state’s electoral rolls. During the Assam SR, no documents will be required from voters, while the SIRs being conducted in nine states and three union territories require voters to fill out enumeration forms and submit supporting documents to remain on the electoral rolls.
In Assam, BLOs (Booth Level Officers) will go door-to-door to verify names from the voter list and remove those who are dead, have migrated, or have multiple names. Regional parties have described the SIR as a backdoor NRC, several of which have even approached the Supreme Court to stop the exercise.
Why is SR happening in Assam?
Jitendra Singh said, “There are concerns about the inclusion of outsiders in the voter list. We are monitoring developments. SR is very different from SIR. They opted for SR because they wanted to avoid the NRC, which previously excluded millions of Hindus in the state.”
Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi told ETV Bharat, “In addition to the immediate introduction of machine-readable electoral rolls for all upcoming elections, we want complete digitization of voter lists and centrally managed, software-based preparation to eliminate manual vulnerabilities. We also want public disclosure of any technical or administrative limitations preventing the adoption of modern, secure voter roll formats.”
Gogoi was given charge of the state unit earlier this year. He is preparing to wrest power from the BJP, which has ruled Assam since 2016. This is a daunting task for the state unit. In the 2021 elections, it won only 29 of the 126 assembly seats, while the BJP won 60. In the 2024 national elections, Congress also won only 3 of Assam’s 14 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP won 9.
