By Ananya Sharma 
Guwahati, March 31: There is a proper battle going on in Assam right now. Not the quiet kind. The loud, microphone-thumping, crowd-pulling kind. And with voting just ten days away on April 9, both the BJP and the Congress have essentially thrown everything at the wall in the last 72 hours.
Rallies. Manifestos. Big promises. Counter-promises. The whole works.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah was in the state on Sunday, going from Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district to Tihu in Nalbari. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma followed that up on Tuesday by releasing the BJP’s full election manifesto, a 31-point document, with Nirmala Sitharaman and Sarbananda Sonowal sitting right beside him. And Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was not far behind, rolling out his party’s “Five Guarantees” at a rally in Naoboicha in Lakhimpur.
In short, the last three days have basically been a full-scale campaign blitz from both sides.
What Shah Actually Promised
Let’s start with the big one: the Uniform Civil Code, or UCC.
Shah was very direct about it at both his Sunday rallies. As reported by The Tribune, he told the crowd that a BJP government in Assam would bring in the UCC “in the coming days” and that one of its core provisions would be a complete ban on polygamy. He used the phrase “ban four marriages” to describe it. As per IANS, the state has already passed an anti-polygamy bill which makes the practice punishable by up to ten years in jail in most cases. The UCC is essentially the next step in that direction.
Shah also made clear that the UCC, if implemented, would not apply to tribal communities or areas covered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. That carve-out matters in Assam. The Bodoland Territorial Region alone has 15 assembly seats. Leaving tribal areas out of the UCC’s scope is almost certainly a deliberate move to avoid a backlash in those constituencies.
Still, the UCC announcement is not exactly new. What is new is how confidently it is being framed now. Ten days before an election, it is no longer being called a future goal or a party aspiration. It is being presented as a done deal, pending only one more BJP win.
The Infiltration Pitch
Shah spent a big chunk of his rally time attacking the Congress on the question of illegal immigration. This is familiar ground for the BJP in Assam, but the language was notably sharper this time around.
According to ANI, Shah alleged that Congress governments over the years had kept the state’s borders “porous in their greed for a vote bank.” He specifically named Dhubri and nine surrounding districts as areas where the demographic makeup had changed because of years of unchecked infiltration. He claimed that the Himanta Biswa Sarma government has already reclaimed 1.25 lakh acres of land that had been occupied by infiltrators.
He also went after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi directly, accusing him of opposing the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in several states. His argument was that this revision is meant to weed out infiltrators from voter lists, and that Congress is fighting it to protect its own vote bank.
The BJP’s promise on this is blunt: identify every illegal immigrant, delete their names from electoral rolls, and deport them within the next five years.
As it turns out, this narrative does resonate with a section of Assam’s voters. The fear of demographic change has deep historical roots here, going all the way back to the Assam Agitation of the 1980s. The BJP knows that. The Congress also knows it and has been trying to flip the script by accusing the BJP of using the issue for communal polarisation rather than genuine border security.
The Rs 3,000 Question: Now Officially Confirmed
This one has been floating around for a while, and it caused some confusion earlier because a similar figure was being discussed in the context of West Bengal as well. So let us be clear about what has actually been confirmed for Assam.
According to ANI, the BJP’s official manifesto released on Tuesday includes a promise to increase the monthly payout under the Orunodoi scheme from the current Rs 1,250 to Rs 3,000 for women beneficiaries. The scheme already covers 40 lakh women across the state. This is not a new scheme. It is a significant hike to an existing one.
For a lot of households in rural Assam, that kind of monthly direct transfer is not small money. It can cover cooking gas for the month, school supplies for a child, maybe even a portion of a small loan repayment. The BJP is clearly banking on that reality.
The manifesto also promises two lakh jobs in the next five years, a Rs 25,000 one-time grant to 40 lakh women under the Lakhpati Didi scheme, and an ambitious plan to set up at least one medical college, one university, and one engineering college in every district.
CM Sarma framed it as a vision for an Assam that is “not a dependent state” but one that actively contributes to nation-building.
Kharge’s Five Guarantees
The Congress is not sitting this one out quietly.
On Sunday, Kharge stood at a rally in Naoboicha and unveiled what the party is calling its Five Guarantees. These are not vague promises. They are specific commitments with numbers attached.
As reported by The Tribune, the five include: an unconditional monthly cash transfer to all women in the state; a one-time Rs 50,000 support grant for women who want to start or expand a business; cashless health insurance of up to Rs 25 lakh per family; permanent land rights called Myadi Patta for 10 lakh indigenous people who currently only get annual allotments; and justice in the death case of beloved Assamese singer Zubeen Garg within 100 days of coming to power.
The “unconditional” framing on the cash transfer is a direct shot at the BJP. Kharge alleged at the rally that the Orunodoi scheme is effectively conditional, that women are asked to be BJP members or supporters before they receive the transfer. He said Congress would not ask any such question.
The Zubeen Garg promise is worth paying close attention to. According to Britannica’s 2026 elections overview, the singer’s death in September 2025 raised serious questions about foul play. His fan base in Assam is enormous. The grief is still raw. Congress putting a 100-day justice deadline in its manifesto is a calculated move, and it could pull in a lot of younger voters who followed Garg closely.
Kharge also went hard after Chief Minister Sarma personally, calling him a “nakli” or fake CM, arguing that the BJP had asked for votes in 2021 in Sarbananda Sonowal’s name and then handed Assam’s top job to Sarma instead.
The Fight for Women Voters
If you are trying to understand what this election is really about, here is the simplest way to put it: it is a fight over women voters.
Both parties have crafted their biggest promises around women. Both have money-in-hand schemes as their centrepiece. And both know that women voters will very likely decide the outcome in a state where welfare delivery has become the primary political currency.
The BJP’s pitch rests on incumbency. It can point to Orunodoi. It can say the money has already been going in. It is promising to more than double the monthly amount. That is a tangible record to campaign on.
The Congress pitch is built on trust and fairness. Its argument is: what good is a scheme if you have to show a party card to get it? An unconditional transfer is more dignified and more democratic than what the BJP is offering.
Which argument lands better will depend a great deal on whether Assam’s women voters feel they have been treated fairly under the current government, or whether they feel the system has been rigged against those who do not toe the party line.
Hat-Trick or Upset?
The BJP enters this election as the firm favourite. It won in 2016 under Sarbananda Sonowal. It won again in 2021 under Himanta Biswa Sarma. A third consecutive term would be a remarkable achievement.
As per Nagaland Post, BJP national president Nitin Nabin was blunt about it at a rally in Margherita: the party is going for the hat-trick and it expects to get there.
Shah is also not done campaigning. According to Deccan Chronicle, he is scheduled to return to Assam on April 2 for further rallies in the Barak Valley, where he will campaign for Minister Krishnendu Paul in Sribhumi district and former MP Rajdeep Roy in Silchar. Barak Valley, with its large Bengali-speaking Hindu population, is a BJP stronghold and the party will want to run up the score there.
That said, anti-incumbency is a real force in Indian politics after two consecutive terms. The Congress has already picked up some structural wins: senior leaders Bhupen Kumar Borah and Pradyut Bordoloi both switched to the BJP, which hurts Congress on paper. But the Congress is betting that a decade of BJP governance has generated real dissatisfaction over jobs, inflation, corruption allegations, and the sense that Sarma’s government governs for some Assamese and not others.
Ten Days Left
For now, Assam is a genuinely contested election. The BJP has the machinery, the welfare record, and a star campaigner in Shah still making stops. The Congress has a credible manifesto, a party president willing to get on stage, and a belief that the ground has shifted under the ruling party’s feet.
Polling is April 9. Counting is May 4.
Ten days can change a lot of things.
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- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
Arun Upadhayay