Guwahati, March 28 — In Jalukbari the central question of this election is not merely who will win, but whether anyone can meaningfully challenge Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s long-standing dominance of a seat he has turned into one of Assam’s safest over the past two decades. Only three candidates are in the fray: Sarma, Congress nominee Bidisha Neog and independent Dipika Das.
Sarma’s grip on Jalukbari has tightened steadily since he first lost the seat in 1996 to Assam Movement leader Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. He went on to win in 2001 by 10,019 votes, increased his margin to over 42,000 in 2006, recorded a 77,403-vote lead in 2011, won by more than 85,000 in 2016 and secured a dominant 101,911-vote margin in 2021. Those figures trace a clear arc from a competitive constituency to a fortress for Sarma, who has held the seat both as a Congress member and, in recent terms, with the BJP.
Jalukbari has some 206,314 registered voters — 108,654 female, 97,653 male and seven transgender voters — spread across 247 polling stations. The constituency spans Azara and Dharapur to Maligaon, Pandu and Gotanagar, and includes parts of North Guwahati. Voters point to visible infrastructure and civic improvements as factors shaping the mood on the ground.
A major local project, the Guwahati–North Guwahati bridge, has dramatically shortened travel between the two banks of the Brahmaputra, cutting what used to be nearly an hour’s commute to roughly seven to ten minutes and offering an all‑weather alternative to the congested Saraighat route. Residents say the bridge has eased traffic, lowered fuel costs and improved access to workplaces, markets and institutions for lakhs of commuters.
For many voters, tangible local delivery matters more than rhetoric. Entrepreneur Angshuman Dey praised Sarma’s work on water connections, saying, “When other parts of Guwahati still struggle, we have been enjoying piped water supply for the last two years. GMC regularly cleans the area and complaints are taken very seriously.” He added that Sarma remains approachable and enjoys a loyal support base that crosses community lines, including a sizeable Bengali-speaking population.
The Congress has pitched Bidisha Neog as a grassroots challenger. A former administrative staffer at Gauhati University, Neog has concentrated on door-to-door outreach to build direct voter connections against the CM’s influence. Speaking to The Assam Tribune, she accused Sarma and his family of long-standing corruption: “It is true that he is very powerful, but the enormity of his corruption, spanning decades of his power stint, is much taller.” Framing her campaign in moral terms, she said she draws on Gandhian ideals: “For me, it is a fight between might and ideology.”
Jalukbari has historically favoured strong personalities, from Phukan’s multi-term hold to Sarma’s current dominance. This election, therefore, will be watched less as a routine contest and more as a measure of whether a challenger can dent the scale of Sarma’s victory and reshape the narrative around the constituency.
Original Source: https://assamtribune.com/guwahati/three-cornered-contest-in-jalukbari-as-himanta-biswa-sarma-seeks-sixth-term-1609924
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Publish Date: 2026-03-28 10:19:00
