Chabua-Lahowal Assembly Seat: Sitting BJP MLA Binod Hazarika Takes on Congress's Pranjal Ghatowar in New Constituency's First Election

The newly constituted Chabua-Lahowal Assembly constituency in Dibrugarh district is shaping up as one of the most closely watched direct contests of the 2026 Assam Assembly elections, with sitting BJP legislator Binod Hazarika squaring off against Congress candidate Pranjal Ghatowar in the seat's inaugural election.

The constituency is a product of delimitation, merging areas from the former Chabua and Lahowal Assembly seats — two areas that Hazarika knows intimately from his own electoral history.

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Binod Hazarika brings considerable electoral weight to the contest. He won the now-abolished Lahowal constituency in 2021 by a margin of 17,248 votes, polling 59,295 votes against AAP's Manoj Dhanowar's 42,047.

Before that, he made political history in 2016 by becoming the first BJP candidate to win from the Chabua seat, defeating three-time Congress MLA Raju Sahu by a massive margin of 30,754 votes. His dominance across both legacy constituencies gives him a natural advantage as Chabua-Lahowal takes shape as a single seat.

Hazarika's path to the BJP ticket was not without internal complications. AGP's Punakon Baruah — who had won the Chabua seat in 2021 after the BJP ceded it to its alliance partner — had also staked a claim for the new merged constituency.

The BJP ultimately chose to back Hazarika, a decision that reflects confidence in his track record but one that required careful alliance management ahead of polling day.

Facing Hazarika is 45-year-old Pranjal Ghatowar, son of veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister of DoNER Paban Singh Ghatowar — a familiar name in Dibrugarh's tea community politics.

The Congress's choice of Pranjal for Chabua-Lahowal is a calculated one. Of the constituency's 1,77,238 voters, approximately 33 per cent belong to the tea community, making it the single most decisive voter bloc in the seat. Pranjal's family roots in the community give him a natural entry point into those conversations.

Pranjal, however, carries the weight of a previous electoral setback. In the 2021 election, he contested from the now-abolished Moran constituency and was defeated by BJP's Chakradhar Gogoi by a margin of 22,341 votes — polling 33,263 votes against Gogoi's 55,604.

For Pranjal, Chabua-Lahowal is as much about personal redemption as it is about political strategy.

Beyond the electoral contest, the constituency faces persistent developmental challenges that candidates will need to address.

Flooding and erosion caused by the Brahmaputra and its tributary Buridehing remain annual threats to homes, farmland, and livelihoods across large parts of the constituency. While road infrastructure has broadly improved, several rural pockets continue to suffer from inadequate connectivity — issues that are likely to feature prominently on the campaign trail in the days ahead.