Assam Assembly Elections: AGP or BJP? Central Guwahati awaits NDA’s final call

A CORRESPONDENT

AZARA: With barely three months remaining for the Assam Legislative Assembly elections, political activity has intensified in the newly constituted Central Guwahati (Madhya Guwahati) Assembly constituency, as aspirants from within the NDA step up their outreach on the ground.

This will be the first Assembly election in Assam after constituency reorganisation, following elections under the new structure during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and the 2025 Panchayat elections, both of which saw sweeping victories for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The alliance's strong performance-winning 11 of 14 Lok Sabha seats and over 80 percent of Panchayat seats-has boosted confidence ahead of the Assembly polls.

Senior NDA leaders, including Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP state president Dilip Saikia, AGP president Atul Bora, and AGP leader Ramendra Narayan Kalita, have repeatedly claimed that the NDA will cross the 100-seat mark in the upcoming election. This optimism has led to the emergence of multiple BJP aspirants in Central Guwahati, even as seat-sharing within the alliance remains undecided.

Historically, under an informal BJP-AGP understanding in 2016, West Guwahati was allotted to the AGP. Veteran leader Ramendra Narayan Kalita won the seat twice with comfortable margins and remains a key NDA face. Following the election of eight-time AGP MLA Phani Bhushan Choudhury to the Lok Sabha in 2024, Kalita is now recognised as one of the senior-most legislators in the Assam Assembly.

Party sources indicate that the AGP, which earlier contested one out of four seats, is now demanding two out of five seats in Kamrup Metropolitan district-Central Guwahati and the SC-reserved Dimoria constituency. Kalita has already intensified his campaign in Central Guwahati, organising multiple meetings and joining programmes over the past two months, during which over 2,000 people from various parties, including the Congress, joined the AGP.

The 36 Central Guwahati constituency, comprising 15 Guwahati Municipal Corporation wards, has 1,98,091 voters, including 1,00,201 women, 97,885 men, and five third-gender voters, spread across 218 polling stations. Known as a mini India, the constituency has an almost equal mix of Assamese and non-Assamese voters, making it politically sensitive.

While the AGP has a single prominent contender, the BJP has several aspirants actively campaigning, highlighting internal competition within the NDA. According to sources, the final NDA seat-sharing formula is likely to be announced either before or shortly after Magh Bihu. Until then, political observers say, the fate of Central Guwahati remains a waiting game.

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