BOLT FROM BODOLAND FOR SARMA

The BJP faces its first big rebuff in a decade in Assam, as Bodoland falls back on old favourite BPF. Will there be a larger impact on the 2026 election?

- Kaushik Deka

SINCE INITIATING THE BJP'S NORTHEASTERN EXPANSION NEARLY A DECADE AGO, Himanta Biswa Sarma has been the lord of all political tides in his precincts. That spell of dominance stands interrupted. On September 22, the Assam chief minister faced his first significant electoral rebuke at home. Or call it near-home, for the arena was the autonomous Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), not his primary turf.

The Bodoland People's Front (BPF) swept 28 out of 40 seats, many with huge margins. The BJP, which went solo, was down to a humiliating five. The ally it had built up and now abandoned, the United People's Party Liberal (UPPL), managed only seven seats, nearly half of its 2020 tally.