The upcoming Assam assembly election is set to get more crowded, with two prominent national figures — Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi — entering the campaign fray from outside the state.
While Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is fielding 16 candidates of its own, Owaisi will be campaigning in support of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), at the personal request of its chief, Badruddin Ajmal.
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This will mark Owaisi's first election-related visit to Assam. He is tentatively scheduled to campaign on April 2 and 3 across several constituencies with significant minority populations, including Rupahihat, Samaguri, Dalgaon, Dhing, Lahorighat, Binnakandi, Goalpara East, Dhubri, Chenga, and Mandiya.
His focus is expected to be squarely on Bengali-speaking Muslim voters, with key issues likely to include the 'miyan' controversy, eviction drives, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and the proposed NRC update.
The move reflects Owaisi's broader ambition to expand AIMIM's footprint in eastern India, particularly in minority-dominated pockets of Assam and West Bengal.
Hemant Soren has already begun campaigning in Upper Assam, a region with a dense concentration of tea gardens and a large Adivasi and tea tribe population estimated at around 70 lakh.
Soren has been vocal about what he sees as decades of neglect of these communities. "It is a grave injustice that the tea community is denied ST status in Assam. This is a question of constitutional rights," he said during his campaign.
He also invoked the historical labour of tea garden workers: "Your ancestors transformed this land into lush green tea gardens through hard labour, but what did you receive in return?"
Soren has framed JMM's entry not as outside interference, but as a response to a long-standing demand for representation. He argues that a JMM presence in the state assembly would allow the party to carry the ST status fight to its "logical conclusion."
The entry of both leaders adds a new layer of complexity to what is already a competitive election.
JMM's push into tea garden-heavy Upper Assam constituencies is seen as a direct challenge to the BJP, which has traditionally relied on Adivasi and tea tribe support in the region.
Owaisi's campaign for AIUDF, meanwhile, could put pressure on the Congress, which also counts on minority community votes in several of the same constituencies.