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1996 Assam Legislative Assembly election

Elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly were held in April 1996 to elect members of 122 constituencies in Assam, India. The Indian National Congress (INC) won the popular vote, but the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) won the most seats and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was appointed as the Chief Minister of Assam for his second term. The number of constituencies was set as 126, by the recommendation of the Delimitation Commission of India, but elections were held in only 122 constituencies. The constituencies of Dispur, Dergaon, Nazira and Margherita did not go to polls immediately, but they had polls in November 1996.

In 1991, the Indian Army was tasked with executing Operation Rhino against the United Liberation Front of Assam. In 1993, the six-year agitation by the All Bodo Students' Union in Assam demanding a separate state within India ended with a peace accord that established an autonomous district council.

The Chief Minister of Assam, Hiteswar Saikia, died in Delhi, on 22 April 1996, only 5 days before the election. Bhumidhar Barman was sworn in as interim chief-minister, but as the Indian National Congress failed to form the government after the elections, his tenure lasted 22 days. The party's defeat was attributed to Saikia's death, which unravelled the electoral coalition he had built up in opposition to the resurgent Asom Gana Parishad.

In 1991, former Home Minister, Bhrigu Kumar Phukan, formed the Natun Asom Gana Parishad (NAGP) in opposition to the policies of Asom Gana Parishad leader, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. Phukan merged the NAGP back with the AGP before the 1996 elections. The AGP formed also a five-party pre-poll electoral alliance before the elections with the CPI, the CPI(M), the ASDC and the UMFA.

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3	Column 4	Column 5	Column 6

	Indian National Congress			Hiteswar Saikia	122

Column 1	Column 2	Column 5	Column 6

AGP-led Alliance
	Asom Gana Parishad	Prafulla Kumar Mahanta	95
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)		10
	Communist Party of India		9
	Autonomous State Demand Committee	Jayanta Rongpi	5
	United Minorities Front, Assam	Kalipada Sen	3


	Indian National Congress	2,778,627	30.56	34	32
	Asom Gana Parishad	2,700,934	29.70	59	40
	Bharatiya Janata Party	946,236	10.41	4	6
	All India Indira Congress (Tiwari)	337,668	3.71	2	New
	Autonomous State Demand Committee	179,877	1.98	5	1
	Communist Party of India	177,750	1.95	3	1
	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	176,721	1.94	2	0
	United Minorities Front, Assam	105,408	1.16	2	New
	Others	105,471	1.16	0	0
	Independents	1,584,109	17.42	11	4
Total	9,092,801	100.00	122	4

9,092,801	95.07
471,632	4.93
9,564,433	100.00
12,119,125	78.92
Source: ECI

On 6 May 1996, the Minister for Rural Development, and candidate for the Golaghat Assembly constituency, Nagen Neog was killed, by suspected terrorists. Along with him, 8 other people, including his driver, and 5 bodyguards, also died.

Date	Constituency	Winner	Party
11 November 1996	Dispur	Atul Bora		Asom Gana Parishad
Nowgong	Girindra Kumar Baruah
Dergaon	Sushila Hazarika
Nazira	Hemprove Saikia		Indian National Congress
Margherita	Tarun Gogoi

List of constituencies of the Assam Legislative Assembly
1996 elections in India

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