Lone rangers flex their muscle against alliances in Assam battle

“Non-aligned” political parties could be the dark horses in Assam’s electoral battle between two blocs – the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Asom Sonmiloto Morcha (ASM).

Mandate 2026 is largely expected to be a direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and the Congress-led ASM in Assam’s 126 Assembly seats.

Harvest anxiety: Assembly election in Assam

The BJP has three allies: Asom Gana Parishad, Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and Rabha Hasong Joutha Mancha. The Congress has five partners in the ASM: two are the Left Front, two are the father of the Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act excitement of 2019 and a hill-based tribal party.

The two blocs are excited about the victory on April 9, the voting day. However, as D-Day approaches, the confidence of neutral parties increases.

The most confident among these parties are the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which is part of the Congress-led Mahajot (Grand Alliance) in the 2021 elections, and the United People’s Liberation Party (UPPL), which was an ally of the BJP five years ago. Both had quit their respective alliance, UPPL, less than two weeks ago.

Best hit rate

AIUDF had the best strike rate in 2021, winning 16 of the 20 seats it contested. Muhammad Badruddin Ajmal, the party’s president and candidate from central Assam’s Binnakandi seat, said AIUDF has the firepower to at least match its 2021 performance.

AIUDF is contesting 27 seats, mostly in Muslim-majority areas.

“The political landscape of Assam will undergo a major change this time as the minority people know that both the BJP and the Congress are exploiting them. People also know that today’s Congress is the A team of the BJP,” he said.

UPPL, which won six of the 11 seats it contested in 2021, is equally optimistic about a good showing. The party is contesting on 18 seats, including three outside the core area covered by the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

UPPL president Pramod Boro said, “We are fighting this election independently because our grassroots supporters, our force, wanted this. We played a key role in restoring peace in BTR, which turned violent again.” He, who was elected to Rajya Sahba a few days ago, is contesting from Tamulpur seat in BTR.

UPPL ruled the BTR-ruling Bodoland Territorial Council in alliance with the BJP for five years until the BPF defeated it in the September 2025 council polls.

The other four non-aligned political formations in the fray are the All India Trinamool Congress (vying on 23 seats), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (21 seats), Aam Aadmi Party (14 seats) and the National People’s Party (NPP) led by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, contesting on three seats.

These neutral parties are not facing each other in many constituencies, raising hopes that they may cause an upset or two.

Trinamool Congress and NPP have left a void in 2021.