In Assam’s assembly elections, the BJP has made Pakistan and 'anti-national' themes central to its campaign, targeting Congress leaders over alleged country links. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has attacked opposition alliance candidates.
On April 2, 2026, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma targeted Assam Jatiya Parishad chief Lurinjyoti Gogoi for fielding Kunki Chowdhury in Guwahati Central against BJP's Vijay Kumar Gupta. Sarma criticised Chowdhury's mother, Sujata Gurung Chowdhury, for supporting Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid, accused in the 2020 Delhi riots, and for rejecting Pakistan as an enemy nation.
Chowdhury called the allegations 'entirely baseless' and said the controversy was working in her favour. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis urged Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi to clarify his Pakistan visit over a decade ago. Sarma, on March 31, questioned Gogoi's election affidavit for omitting a Pakistani bank account he mentioned in a press conference.
Sarma highlighted Gogoi's 10-day 'suspicious' 2013 Pakistan trip, during which he maintained digital silence, and his British wife Elizabeth Colburn Gogoi's work with a climate organisation there. An Assam police SIT was formed in 2025 to probe these links. Gogoi dismissed the claims as a 'wild theory' existing only in Sarma's head.
The BJP has invoked historical figure Syed Muhammad Saadulla, Assam's Prime Minister from 1938-1946, accusing him of encouraging Muslim settlements from East Bengal to align Assam with Pakistan, efforts thwarted by Gopinath Bordoloi, whom the party posthumously honoured with the Bharat Ratna.
