Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on May 5 repeated an earlier prediction about senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia after Saikia suffered a crushing defeat in the 2026 Assam Assembly elections from the Nazira constituency in Sivasagar district. Sarma said his forecast had two parts — that Saikia would lose the seat and that he would later join the BJP — and added that the first part had come true while the second could unfold over time.
“I had predicted that Debabrata Saikia will lose this Assembly election and later join BJP. See, there were two parts to my prediction. First that Debabrata Saikia will lose and second that he will join BJP. So the first part of my prediction has been proven. Later he may join BJP. Five years is a long time,” Sarma was quoted as saying on May 5.
The result was decisive: BJP candidate Mayur Borgohain won Nazira with 98,198 votes, while Saikia polled 51,497, a margin of more than 46,000 votes. The scale of the loss underscored a major setback for the Congress in Upper Assam, where Nazira has long been regarded as one of the party’s remaining strongholds and has been closely associated with the Saikia family for decades.
During the campaign, Saikia repeatedly attacked the ruling BJP government on economic management and youth employment, accusing it of failing to deliver on promises made over the last decade. After polling concluded in April 2026, he had dismissed exit polls that projected a sweeping NDA victory, insisting that voters were seeking change — a stance that the final outcome did not bear out in his home constituency.
Debabrata Saikia is the son of former Assam Chief Minister Hiteswar Saikia and has been active in organisational and election work since 1978, a political lineage that helped make Nazira a Congress bastion. Political observers say Saikia’s loss, combined with Sarma’s public prediction, will fuel speculation about party realignments in Assam and deepen questions about Congress’s prospects in Upper Assam going forward.
Original Source: https://www.indiatodayne.in/assam/story/my-first-part-of-the-prediction-came-true-himanta-biswa-sarma-on-debabrata-saikias-poll-defeat-1387538-2026-05-05?utm_source=rssfeed
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Publish Date: 2026-05-05 23:31:00
