Nagaon Lok Sabha by-election: Dried fish follows biryani in campaign

Congress leader Rakibul Hussain with Bhupen Kumar Borah. FILE photo. | Photo credit: ANI

GUWAHATI

Sun- or smoke-dried fish is a delicacy in Assam. Sometimes it can also be divisive, used to shame or as a classic or racist slur against certain food cultures.

In the election battle for the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat, biryani and dry fish crackers followed to target the candidates and key activists.

By-elections in the Muslim-majority constituency are scheduled for October 6. Pradyut Bordoloi won the seat for a second term in 2024, but left the Congress to contest and win the Dispur Assembly constituency as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in April 2026, necessitating a by-poll.

During one of his campaigns, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal called Congress MP Rakibul Hussain a “madman”. He also said that the MP was “born eating dried fish, not biryani”, a veiled reference to him being more Bengali than Assamese.

Although the dried fish is popular among some indigenous communities, it is more associated with Bengalis – Hindus and Muslims – in Assam. Bengali speakers are a sizeable population in Nagaon.

A former Minister of State, Mr. Hussain hails from Nagaon and is a key Congress campaigner. He ended Mr. Ajmal’s winning streak in Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in west Assam by over 10 lakh votes.

The food narrative entered the Nagaon election campaign on September 28 when Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recalled his association with Mr. Hussain during his Congress days. During one of his campaigns, the chief minister also commented on the food habits of the latter.

Mr. Hussain countered that God had made him rich enough to eat biryani, while pointing out Mr. Sarma’s alleged weakness for crackers.

“What can I do when he (Chief Minister) was born to eat crackers in the morning and in the evening? He saw pulao and chicken after joining the Congress,” Mr Hussain said.

The Chief Minister responded by comparing the Congress MP to Bakasura, a mythological crane-demon with an insatiable appetite. He also said that the MP consumes pulao and meat three times before 9am

“Does a baby after birth drink mother’s milk or eat biryani? Those in the first category are human and those in the second are beasts,” Sarma said during a campaign in the Muslim-majority Juria region.

The Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency was a Congress stronghold before Rajen Gohain won it for the BJP four times between 1999 and 2014. The Congress wrested it in 2019 and 2024. The BJP fielded former bureaucrat Devasish Sharma in the constituency. His main rivals are former MLA Sibamoni Bora of the Congress and Mr. Ajmal of the AUIDF.

The constituency has 12 other contestants, including nine independents.

Published – 02 Oct 2026 11:52 IST