THE GOGOI GAMBIT

The Congress is going all in with MP and legacy heir Gaurav Gogoi in the battle for Assam against Himanta Sarma's BJP in 2026

- By Kaushik Deka

IT MAY HAVE BEEN A CORONATION WAITING TO HAPPEN, but when it came—on May 26, with a year to go for the 2026 Assam assembly election—it rang out like a call to a duel from the days of feudal chivalry. Gaurav Gogoi, like a prince who had the throne snatched from him, has got his chance for avengement. Elevated as state Congress president by the high command, his formal investiture sets the stage for a most intense political slugfest, for Gogoi will be in the ring against a very combative incumbent CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma of the BJP, the mutineer who felled his father.

It’s a classic setpiece, meant to end a frustrating decade of eclipse for the Congress, marked by utter BJP dominance over a state it had made a fresh conquest of only in 2016. Part of it rests on legacy. The late Tarun Gogoi’s 15-year stint as CM is often associated with Assam’s fitful passage out of its old militancy-hit phase into a measure of stability and prosperity.