The BJP is seeking a third consecutive term in Assam in Assembly polls on April 9, 2026, while the Congress is fighting to make a comeback after 10 years in the wilderness. In 2021, the coalition of BJP, AGP and UPPL won 75 of 126 seats, with the BJP alone winning 60. Communal mobilisation and welfare schemes make the standard BJP toolkit here too, but Assam is a unique theatre of political experimentation for the party and its governments at the State and the Centre. Conflicts over large-scale migration of Bengali-speaking people have long shaped Assam’s politics. Nativist politics developed primarily in opposition to this migration. The BJP’s growth has come by recasting that nativism into a question of Hindu-Muslim conflict, creating a new political dynamic weakening subnational outfits and pressuring the Congress. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 enacted a communal eligibility clause for people who entered India from Bangladesh. Nativist opposition to citizenship for any immigrant — including Hindus — and other factors stalled the large-scale rollout of the law, but rhetoric over demographic change remains the mainstay of politics. This will be the first Assembly poll after the 2023 delimitation of constituencies, which has displayed patterns of communal gerrymandering, reducing the impact of Muslim voters and enhancing representation for indigenous communities. BJP functionaries, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, have been open about the intended impact.