Rahul Gandhi Reviews 2026 Assam Assembly Election Strategy With Newly Appointed State Team

New Delhi: Crossing the halfway mark in the 126-member Assam Assembly, framing a positive campaign, reaching out to the voters and exposing the BJP government dominated the discussions that Rahul Gandhi had with the new state leadership team on Friday.

The strategy session came days after the Congress recast its Assam unit and named deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, as the new state unit chief. The party also named three senior leaders Jakir Hussain Sikdar, Roselina Tirkey and Pradip Sarkar as working presidents besides making former state unit chief Bhupen Borah the head of the Campaign Committee, senior leader Debabrata Saikia the head of Coordination Committee, senior leader Ripun Bora the head of Election Management Committee and MPs Pradyut Bordoloi and Rakibul Hussain the heads of the Manifesto and the Publicity Committees respectively.

The Congress has been in the opposition in the north-eastern state since 2016 and is keen to regain power in the 2026 Assembly elections. The rejig of the state team that included replacing former state unit chief Bhupen Borah, who steered the party over the past four years, was done with the next year’s contest in mind. However, besides a new team, the Congress needs to aggressively launch its campaign, said party insiders.

“Rahul Gandhi reviewed the plans for the year ahead with the newly appointed Assam leadership team. The people are fed up with the BJP government and want a change that our new team will bring. The people are suffering every single day under a tyrannical, corrupt and deeply divisive Chief Minister. Since we unveiled our new team, the Chief Minister and the saffron party have lost their balance. The Congress has a rich legacy of delivering honest, pro-people governance, and this will be flagged among the people over the coming days,” AICC in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh told ETV Bharat.

According to the AICC secretary in-charge of Assam, Manoj Chauhan, the grand old party is confident of crossing the halfway mark in the state and will expand its voter outreach over the coming months.

“Our campaign is already on, but after getting directives from our leader, we will get more aggressive on the ground over the coming days. We have to expose the state government and point out its failures to the voters. We also need to connect with the voters to be able to frame a positive campaign based on the work done by the previous Tarun Gogoi government. We would also like to know what the voters expect from the grand old party,” Chauhan told ETV Bharat.

"That, in many ways, explained the appointment of Gaurav Gogoi, son of three-term former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, to lead the party in the north-eastern state. Rahul Gandhi, who had faced some rough treatment from the current Chief Minister during his Bharat Jodo Yatra in the state, was also keen to frame the upcoming contest as a Gaurav Gogoi vs Himanta Biswa Sarma fight."

“Given the mood for change among the public, we can easily cross the halfway mark,” Chauhan said.

Congress insiders, however, say it may not be easy, given that the grand old party won only 29 out of 126 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections and 26 in 2016, when the BJP came to power in Assam for the first time with 60 seats on its own. Furthermore, Congress lost six MLAs to the BJP after the 2021 elections. Rahul Gandhi has also been emphasising the need to strengthen the party’s state organisation.

“We have formed local teams at the block level, but the work of some district teams remains to be reviewed. That will be done soon,” Chauhan added.

Read more: After Success In Panchayat Elections, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma Aims 95 Seats In Assembly Polls