Opinion | Assam Elections 2026: The Digital War That Redefined Congress’s Identity

Preety Priyadarshinee

The BJP didn’t just consolidate its base; it expanded it by influencing undecided voters and weakening Congress’s cross-community appeal

The 2026 Assam assembly election wasn’t just fought on the ground; it was engineered, amplified, and in many ways decided in the digital arena. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) didn’t merely defeat the Congress electorally—it succeeded in recasting the party’s identity in the public imagination.

For Congress, the verdict was more than a loss. It marked a structural collapse. A third consecutive defeat, and more tellingly, a sharply skewed mandate—just one Hindu MLA among 20—has raised urgent questions about its shrinking acceptability among large sections of Assam’s electorate.

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Collapse in Hindu-Dominated Regions

Congress’s near wipeout in Hindu-majority constituencies didn’t happen overnight. It was the result of a sustained political narrative that gradually isolated the party from these voters.

At the centre of this shift has been the aggressive identity politics led by chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Unlike earlier BJP campaigns that balanced development with identity, Sarma’s strategy leaned unapologetically into Hindu consolidation.

His speeches, policy framing, and public positioning consistently reinforced a binary, portraying the BJP as the protector of Assamese Hindu........

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