Guwahati, March 30: With Assam already in the middle of its 2026 election campaign, the messaging doesn’t quite end when a rally does, it follows voters home, settles into their phones, and returns in ways that are not always easy to trace.
Officials familiar with the matter say a rise in suspicious social media activity has been flagged ahead of the polls, including accounts with possible foreign linkages, and while agencies continue to monitor patterns, for most people this does not feel external, it simply blends into the everyday scroll.
In a state with over 2.5 crore voters, political communication now moves as much through private networks as it does through public platforms, especially messaging groups where familiarity often replaces verification.
You can sense how it works.
A phone buzzes, a message drops into a family group, someone says “dekha ne, important ase,” and it moves on, unverified but not entirely doubted either.
In districts like Nagaon, Barpeta and parts of Upper Assam, local campaign workers admit that WhatsApp outreach now runs alongside ground campaigns, booth work on one side, message circulation on the other.
A voter may hear one version at a rally, and by evening encounter several more on their phone, repeated enough times to feel familiar, and familiarity… slowly begins to pass for truth.
This shift is sharper when seen against the state’s demographics.
With over 70 lakh voters under 30, a large section of the electorate is encountering political content first on screens, through clips, edits and forwards that often arrive before formal reporting does.
Political parties have adapted quickly.
The digital push is now central, and leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma and Gaurav Gogoi remain highly visible across platforms, their messaging travelling far beyond physical rallies and shaping perception in real time.
Most of this is organised and domestic.
But the presence of unverified external accounts, even in limited numbers, complicates the ecosystem, making it harder to distinguish between organic opinion and coordinated messaging.
Election authorities have tried to keep pace, flagging suspicious activity and working with platforms, but the speed of circulation often runs ahead of regulation.
Which means a part of this election now unfolds quietly, across screens, building through repetition more than visibility.
And in a contest where perception often settles early, that quiet layer of influence may carry more weight than what is said on stage.
Also Read: Assam Congress expels 15 leaders for ‘anti-party activities’ ahead of polls
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