HATIMURA (ASSAM) Gojen Dohotia never imagined that he would be facing political heavyweights – from Assam and beyond – almost every day since the last week of September 2025, when a makeshift memorial for Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg came up on National Highway 27 in Hatimura.
About 20 km east of Guwahati, Hatimura is where Garg’s last rites were performed on September 23, 2025, four days after he died while swimming off an island in Singapore where he was scheduled to address an event.
“The influx of politicians increased when the election season started more than a month ago. It’s ironic because Zubeenda has often expressed his aversion to politics, punctuated by his song Politics nokoriba bondu (don’t play politics my friend),” said Mr Dohotia, who sells souvenirs under a shed adjacent to the Zubeen Kshetra.
Zubeen Kshetra is the name of the cultural center being built on 10-bigha (3.3 acres) around the spot where Garg was cremated. The spot is an enclosed samadhi with a tin roof, around which his fans, young and old, go around offering clay lamps, flowers and incense sticks.
Fans at Zubeen Kshetra, a memorial coming for Zubeen Garg near Guwahati. | Photo credit: Rahul Karmakar
Paying obeisance to Garg, the ‘immortal voter’ in Dispur Assembly constituency, has been a pre-election ritual for many candidates in Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley. In the constituency, Zubeen Kshetra is also decorated with posters and huge cutouts of the iconic singer-songwriter.
For tens of thousands of his fans, visiting Zubeen Kshetra has become a habit. He prays to his icon and to a higher power he believes in for “Justice for Zubeen”.
“We can only hope. It is up to the government, one or the other, regardless of political color, to get Zubeend and his family justice,” said Sumitra Gohain from Dibrugarh, about 430 km east of Hatimura. By justice, she meant punishment for all those people thought had driven Gargo to death, directly or indirectly.
Influence on the poll result
Pranjal Gogoi, from a village in eastern Assam’s Jorhat district, said the Singapore court’s ruling that Garg’s death was accidental would not change people’s minds. “He should have been left out of politics and the election, but the events surrounding his death will affect the outcome this time, although I don’t think he will ever get justice. No pure soul,” he said.
Ringmoni Borah Dutta from Dhemaji, a village in northeastern Assam district, disagreed. “He will get justice, maybe not so quickly. But we would like to see the work on his memorial completed faster,” she said.
Work on the center, including the construction of the border wall, began around the time the election schedule was announced on March 15. The work was initiated by the State Department of Public Works.
The issue of “justice for Zubeen” snowballed after Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed in November 2025 that Garg was murdered as part of a conspiracy. Seven people, including Garg’s manager Siddharth Sharma and Shyamkan Mahanta, the organizer of the event, have been arrested for their involvement in his “mysterious” death.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) subsequently staged a ‘Nyay Yatra’, citing the arrest and charge-sheeting as the government’s commitment to ensure justice in the case. He also asked the Congress-led opposition not to politicize his death.
The opposition hit back and pointed out that the chief minister had made it a political issue by telling people that they should not vote for BJP if the government did not get justice for Garg.
Actively involved in the Anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, Garg has often been critical of the BJP. He also attacked the BJP-led Assam government for cutting century-old trees in Guwahati to make way for a flyover.
Some of Gargo’s younger fans still haven’t gotten over his death. “Maybe I won’t vote because Zubeenda won’t,” said Himangshu Deka from western Assam’s Nalbari.
Garg continues to be a voter of Dispur constituency. Election officials refused to remove his name from the electoral roll out of respect.
Published – 27 March 2026 04:00 IST
