Zubeen factor may hold key to Assam polls in 2026

Assam’s politics has always been a volatile mix of identity, insurgency, and culture. Assam CM Himanta Biswas Sarma’s latest rhetoric   that popular singer Zubeen Garg was murdered, and if justice is not delivered, the BJP will be rejected in 2026, is not merely a statement but a crafted political plot. It turns the death of a cultural icon into a strategic tool, reshaping Assam’s political terrain. The Zubeen factor, therefore, is not just a cultural wound; it is Assam’s political litmus test. Sarma tied his own fate to a probe that could yet prove to be his undoing.  Six months before Assam votes, its most adored artiste has become a political fault line.

In fact, the Chief Minister has gone on record saying that the people of Assam must not vote for him if he cannot deliver justice. It has become a personal challenge for Sarma, who has always called himself a die-hard fan of Zubeen Garg. Sarma knows that for the emotional Assamese, time will not erase the grief and memory of Zubeen. However, Zubeen was known to speak his mind and though some of his statements did not bode well for the saffron party, nothing could be done against him because of the scale of his popularity.

The late singer had advised Assamese athlete Hima Das to eat beef for strength, and declared that he was a Brahmin, but had snapped his janeu or sacred thread. He triggered a huge row by asking that  Brahmins should be killed. His comment that Lord Krishna was not God but a man drew similar reactions. Zubeen  opposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. The anti-CAA movement fizzled out in Assam after he took ill at the peak of the protests.

The Congress has begun to breathe down the neck of the Himanta Biswa Sarma government, claiming that there are links between the BJP and Zubeen Garg’s death. Gogoi brought the Congress high command into the fold by persuading Rahul Gandhi to visit Zubeen’s funeral site on October 17. Shyamkanu Mahanta, organiser of the Northeast Festival where Zubeen had gone to perform, is the brother of two powerful figures: Assam’s information commissioner and former DGP Bhaskar Mahanta, and Nani Gopal Mahanta, vice chancellor of Gauhati University. Nani Gopal, a close associate of Sarma, is also close to the RSS and has hosted its chief Mohan Bhagwat twice at his residence. 

The Miya community, or Bengali-speaking Muslims of immigrant origin, are claiming Zubeen as a unifying cultural symbol.  
Zubeen’s agnostic legacy is also a subtle challenge to Sarma’s anti-immigration politics and eviction drives, particularly in Upper Assam, where Gaurav Gogoi’s emergence threatens to wean away Ahom support from the BJP. Given the Miyas’ traditional Congress allegiance, the two forces could pose a formidable challenge to the BJP in 2026. With the murder trial in the case against all seven accused underway, the judgement could make or break Sarma politically.