In the 72 hours before Assam votes, the chief minister shared alleged beef-eating photos of a rival's mother, the opposition accused his wife of holding passports from three countries, someone edited his Wikipedia page with fake controversies, and candidates filed deepfake complaints at cyber crime stations. Actual governance policy was, understandably, not discussed.
The final days of Assam's 2026 election campaign achieved a level of chaos that makes reality TV look scripted. On April 4, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma displayed screenshots at rallies alleging that AJP candidate Kunki Chowdhury's mother had posted photos of consuming beef on social media — a criminal offence under the Assam Cattle Preservation Act, 2021. Chowdhury retaliated by accusing the BJP of using AI deepfakes to malign her family and filed a complaint at Panbazar Cyber Crime Police Station. Not to be outdone, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera alleged on April 5 that Sarma's wife holds passports from the UAE, Antigua and Barbuda, and Egypt — a claim Sarma called "fabricated" and "supplied by Pakistan" before dispatching police to search Khera's Delhi residence. On April 6, an anonymous Wikipedia user going by "Endofworld123" edited Sarma's Wikipedia page to insert fabricated controversies, which moderators later removed. Through all of this, the election is ostensibly about governance of a state with regular floods, an insurgency problem, and 31 million people. But sure, let's talk about someone's mother's dinner.