Guwahati

The BJP-led NDA's return to power in Assam for a third consecutive term with a massive mandate has reinforced the state as the party’s strongest base in the Northeast and validated Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s governance model.

At the time of going to the press, the NDA has won 102 of the 126 Assembly seats, comfortably crossing the majority mark of 64. The BJP alone won 81 seats and was leading in one more constituency.

BJP's allies, the Bodoland People's Front (BPF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) have 10 seats each, according to Election Commission data.

This is for the first time since Independence that an alliance bagged more than 100 seats, or a single party other than the Congress secured an absolute majority on its own.

All other earlier non-Congress governments, including the two BJP regimes of 2016 and 2021, did not have any party getting the majority mark single-handedly.

The mandate is significant in the national context as the victory strengthened the BJP's narrative of state-level dominance ahead of other 2026 polls and the 2029 Lok Sabha cycle.

The BJP's spectacular show in West Bengal and retention of Assam sent a clear signal of the party tightening its pan-India grip.

With the latest results for the five states that went to the polls, the BJP-led NDA will be governing 21 of 31 states and UTs.

Commenting on the performance, Assam BJP social media in-charge Ranjib Kumar Sarmah told PTI that the assembly results have strengthened Modi's hands.

"The Congress and its INDIA bloc are totally demoralised across the country now. We can see that from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The people of the country have rejected the anti-BJP leadership fully," he added.

Speaking about the Assam results, Sarmah said the party successfully maintained very good coordination between the organisation, leadership and the government.

"It was ensured that only genuine people get the benefits of welfare schemes, which played an important role in securing this verdict. People also realised that the BJP is going to maintain the social fabric without taking any vindictive position against any community," he added.

The saffron party's campaign centred on curbing illegal immigration, eviction drives, and "identity, land and security" issues, claiming it freed 1.5 lakh bighas of land from "Bangladeshi encroachers".

Union Home Minister Amit Shah promised to deport "every infiltrator" within five years if the BJP remains in power. This victory signals voter approval of that narrative.

असम कांग्रेस के 21 विधायक चुने गए हैं, जिनमें से सिर्फ़ एक हिंदू है। पहली बार असम में भाजपा की अपनी Majority वाली सरकार बनी है। pic.twitter.com/lW0qGHTUBP

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 4, 2026

Also, the win of this magnitude will surely give Sarma political capital to continue his "push-back" operations and evictions, which BJP leaders say will continue more aggressively in the next five years.

"Our eviction drives will continue to clear encroachments. Our government will not accept any interference with our cultural heritage and identity," Sarmah said.

असम के सभी कार्यकर्ताओं को जय श्री राम🙏

भाजपा के इस प्रचंड बहुमत में सबसे बड़ा योगदान आप सभी कार्यकर्ताओं का ही है। pic.twitter.com/Xkg8O2odho

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 4, 2026

The alliance model also got vindicated as strategic pacts with AGP and BPF, plus delimitation that reduced Muslim-majority seats, delivered electoral advantage. It reinforced the BJP's playbook of regional tie-ups along with social engineering.

If the BJP central leadership retains Sarma as the chief minister for the second term, it will establish him as the party's key northeastern face.

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Although Sarma was very active in regional politics as the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the regional arm of the NDA, the platform became defunct in the last few years.