"We Know Our Limitations": Himanta Sarma On NDA Target For Assam Polls

The Assam unit of the BJP on Friday decided to contest the 2026 assembly elections in the state with its alliance partners and set a target for the NDA to win 103 seats in the 126-member House.

This decision was taken by Assam BJP's core committee at a meeting where they announced that the elections would focus on overall development of the state and the BJP's core ideological principles, a party statement said.

After the meeting, Chief Minister Himanta Sarma said the party will "comfortably win" the elections due to its strong development model.  The BJP won in Bihar, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Delhi, and now the party will win in Assam again, he said.

However, Sarma said that though the NDA will be contesting 103 seats, the BJP might not win them all. 

''Our footprints will be in 103 seats for sure. We know our limitations and know how far we can go, so we are not making big plans or claims," he said.

The chief minister added that the Assamese Muslims will support the BJP, but the party does not expect votes from the 'Miya' community, a derogatory term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in the state. 
"If they give, it is well and good, though we do not hope for it," he added.

''Earlier, we could contest a maximum of 90 seats, but now due to delimitation, we can give tickets to more youth and women,'' Sarma said.

Sarma said that strict measures will be taken to curb issues such as polygamy, 'Love Jihad, and 'Land Jihad' in the coming days. 

He added that action will also be taken against illegal encroachers from the Bengali-speaking Muslim community, who are occupying government land, forest land, professional grazing reserve (PGR) and village grazing reserve (VGR) land, tribal belts, and satra lands. 

He also informed party workers that the government aims to reach a just and acceptable decision on granting tribal status to six communities in the coming assembly session after taking all stakeholders into confidence.

Claiming that the party faces no political challenges, Sarma said, "The BJP has members from all communities. If they had not supported us, the party could not have become such a big organisation. We support the demands of different communities because we are part of them

The core committee meeting was attended by Sarma, BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh, state party president Dilip Saikia, Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, national secretary and MP Kamakhya Tasa, state-in-charge Harish Dwivedi, state general secretary (organisation) Rabindra Raju, and other senior leaders.

Before the meeting, the chief minister also attended the concluding session of the meeting of the newly appointed coordinators and in-charges of all 126 assembly constituencies.