Dibrugarh as Assam’s second capital: behind BJP’s gambit for 2026 Assembly election

Dibrugarh's rise in Assam politics, from railway hub to potential second capital, underlines BJP's Ujoni stronghold and challenges ahead.

There was a reason why the British invested in a 65-km railway track from Dibrugarh to Margherita in the early 1880s, less than two decades after Asia’s first oil well was drilled at the nearby Digboi town.

The track helped transport coal, tea, and timber from Margherita and stations en route to the Brahmaputra River port at Dibrugarh. The town developed into the administrative hub of eastern Assam and became a major centre for trade, commerce, and education in the region.

Dibrugarh was one of the highest revenue-collecting centres in India during and after the transfer of power in 1947. However, its graph started dropping a couple of decades later and accelerated after the Assam Agitation of 1979-85 and the United Liberation Front of Asom brand of extremism.

Dibrugarh and the adjoining Tinsukia district used to be the outfit’s strongholds until about two decades ago.

The town celebrated when one of its sons, Sarbananda Sonowal, became the Chief Minister of Assam’s first Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in 2016, although he represented Majuli, a constituent of the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency in the east.

Dibrugarh and the eponymous district, however, did not grab the spotlight as much as it has since Mr. Sonowal’s successor, Himanta Biswa Sarma, unfurled the National Flag on the 76th Republic Day.

The focus of the CM’s speech was on the government’s decision to develop Dibrugarh as the State’s second capital. “The construction work for a permanent Assembly building in Dibrugarh will start on January 25, 2026,” he said, promising a session of the Assembly in Dibrugarh every year from 2027.