Trinamool pulls off a surprise victory in Assam amid Bengal rout
The Trinamool Congress has won the Mandia seat in Assam. MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed defeated his opponents from the BJP, Congress and AIUDF. Ahmed's win gives a symbolic weight for Mamata Banerjee's TMC outside West Bengal and reflects Ahmed's local clout and hold on his seat.
As results of the Assembly elections in Assam and West Bengal were declared on Monday, the Trinamool Congress delivered a dud on its home turf in West Bengal. Many pollsters had refrained from making detailed predictions for the Bengal contest, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party has decimated the TMC. While the party's entrenched support base in Bengal failed to deliver a third term, Trinamool secured an unexpected win in Assam, clinching one seat in the minority-dominated Mandia constituency in western Barpeta district.
It's a Congress MLA, who was briefly a Raijor Dal, Sherman Ali Ahmed, who then got a ticket from the TMC.
Ahmed's victory has added a fresh layer to the day's political narrative. A three-term MLA and widely regarded as a mass leader with strong grassroots appeal in western Assam, his win was not entirely unanticipated given his popularity. Yet it marks a notable expansion for the TMC beyond its traditional Bengal stronghold and highlights the fluid nature of Opposition politics in the north-east.
Sherman Ali Ahmed’s win is a classic example of Assam's political landscape, where competition is intense and party-switching is swift.
He entered the Assam Assembly in 2011 from Baghbar as an All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) candidate before joining the Congress, where he was re-elected in 2016 and 2021. Long-suspended by the Congress for alleged violations of party discipline, he remained a vocal critic of the Grand Old Party's state leadership.
In February 2026, he joined the Raijor Dal, an ally in the Congress-led Opposition alliance, and was promptly appointed the party's vice-president.
He was also named its candidate for Mandia. But this stint was short-lived, lasting barely a month. When Raijor Dal finalised its list in late March as part of seat-sharing arrangements with Congress, Ahmed was dropped. Congress had fielded a different nominee for the seat.
Sources told India Today Digital that senior Congress leader and Dhubri MP Rakibul Hussain had viewed Ahmed as a potential threat, influencing the decision not to accommodate him within the party fold earlier. Hussain, a senior Congress leader, has been one of the party's most influential faces among Muslim voters in Assam.
Five years ago, in 2020, Sherman Ali Ahmed had stirred a hornet's nest by proposing a "Miya Museum" at a cultural centre in Guwahati, the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, The Hindu reported.
A five-time MLA from Samaguri in Nagaon district and a former minister handling key portfolios such as forests, environment, rural development and tourism in the Tarun Gogoi governments, Rakibul Hussain won the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in 2024 by a massive margin against AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal. His clout in ticket distribution and minority outreach is very strong.
Hussain's rivalry with Ahmed, however, points at internal fissures within Congress ranks in the region.
Undeterred by the setback, Ahmed switched to the TMC within hours of being dropped by Raijor Dal.
The party fielded him from Mandia, a constituency where his local connect and reputation as a vocal, people-centric leader proved decisive. Voters in the area appear to have backed him for his tenacity rather than party loyalty alone.
Sherman Ali Ahmed was among the seven candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress in Assam.
For TMC, the Assam gain, modest in the 126-member House, carries a symbolic weight.
While it got decimated in West Bengal, the Mandia win demonstrates the party's willingness to tap into defectors and regional discontent.
For Mamata Banerjee's party, it is a telling step in its outreach beyond Bengal.
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