Leadership transitions within political parties are commonplace—routine affairs that seldom generate headlines outside the concerned organisation. Yet, the recent appointment of Gaurav Gogoi as the President of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee seems to have sent shockwaves not through his own party, but through the BJP.

One might wonder: what is it about Congress’s internal reshuffle that has left the BJP so visibly unsettled?

Has a simple sneeze from Congress caused the BJP to catch a cold?

A few months ago, the BJP quietly replaced its Assam state president, Bhabesh Kalita, with Dilip Saikia. The move was received with the usual political indifference—no outpourings of sympathy, no dramatic reactions, no one labelling Kalita as a "victim" of inner-party politics.

Yet, when Congress did the same by appointing Gogoi, the BJP erupted. Within hours, statements flew from several senior leaders, including Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

What followed was curious: Gogoi became the target of aggressive political posturing, while outgoing Congress president Bhupen Borah was cast in a sentimental light—as though he had been unceremoniously dethroned.

The BJP appeared to attack and sympathise in the same breath.

The obvious question is: why such hypersensitivity?

Is Gaurav Gogoi’s appointment so strategically inconvenient for the BJP that it feels compelled to react with such intensity? Has this internal Congress decision disrupted carefully laid electoral strategies for 2026?

Adding more weight to this theory is a pointed declaration by BJP’s new state president, Dilip Saikia, who stated that the next electoral battle in Assam would be “Gogoi versus Saikia.”

This is no casual comment—it signals a possible shift in electoral leadership, suggesting that Saikia, not Chief Minister Sarma, could front the BJP’s campaign in 2026.

It’s an odd turn of events. While Congress reshuffles quietly, the BJP appears to scramble into response mode—loud, swift, and defensive. One could be forgiven for asking: is Congress’s internal decision-making truly that threatening?

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In a healthy democracy, it is both expected and respected that parties will make changes to suit their evolving strategies.

To treat those changes as causes for alarm only signals a deeper insecurity. When political maturity gives way to overreaction, it reveals not strength, but nervousness.

This editorial is not intended to downplay the significance of Congress’s leadership change, but rather to highlight the disproportionate noise it has generated elsewhere.

In politics, perception matters—and right now, the BJP’s reaction is telling a far bigger story than Congress’s decision itself.

So again, we ask—if Congress so much as sneezes, does the BJP really need to catch a cold?

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