Lone rangers flex their muscle against alliances in Assam battle

The “non-aligned” political parties may 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 straight fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA and the Congress-led ASM across Assam’s 126 Assembly seats.

Harvesting anxiety: On Assam, its Assembly election

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

The two blocs are gung-ho about victory on April 9, the day of voting. However, the neutral parties have been gaining in confidence as the D-Day approaches.

The most confident among these parties are the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which was part of the Congress-led Mahajot (Grand Alliance) during the 2021 polls, and the United People’s Party Liberation (UPPL), which was the BJP’s ally five years ago. Both walked out of their respective alliance, the UPPL less than a fortnight ago.

Best strike rate

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

The AIUDF is contesting 27 seats, the bulk of them in Muslim-dominated areas.

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

The UPPL, which won six of the 11 seats it contested in 2021, is equally upbeat about a good show. The party is contesting 18 seats, three beyond its core area covered by the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).

“We are fighting this election independently because our grassroots supporters, our strength, wanted us to. We played a key role in restoring peace in the BTR, which is relapsing into violence,” UPPL president Pramod Boro said. Elected to the Rajya Sahba a few days ago, he is contesting the Tamulpur seat in the BTR. 

The UPPL ruled the Bodoland Territorial Council, which governs the BTR, in alliance with the BJP for five years until the BPF defeated it in the September 2025 council polls. 

Four other non-aligned political entities in the fray are the All India Trinamool Congress (contesting 23 seats), the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (21 seats), the Aam Aadmi Party (14 seats), and the National People’s Party (NPP) headed by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, which is contesting three seats.

These neutral parties do not face each other in many constituencies, raising hopes that they could cause an upset or two.

The Trinamool Congress and the NPP drew a blank in 2021.