BJP strategist Himanta Biswa Sarma to be Assam’s new CM

Assam’s new Cabinet will take oath at 12 noon on Monday, said media reports.

TFM Desk

The BJP’s top party strategist in Northeast India and senior leader Himanta Biswa Sarma will be the next Chief Minister of Assam. He was on Sunday elected the leader of the BJP legislature party by the newly elected MLAs.

The 52-years-old leader was elected the leader of the BJP legislature party at a meeting held at the Assam assembly campus.

At the legislature party meeting held in Guwahati on Sunday, Sarbananda Sonowal had proposed the name of Himanta Biswa Sarma after PM Modi gave his approval for Sarma’s elevation and the same was seconded by MLAs. Himanta Biswa Sarma will succeed Sarbananda Sonowal as the Chief Minister of Assam.

How enormously blessed I feel Hon PM Sri @narendramodi for your faith in me. This is the biggest day in my life, and I so fondly cherish your generous affection. I assure you we shall leave no stone unturned to carry forward your vision of taking Assam, & NE to greater heights. pic.twitter.com/fQPKjXjDzR

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) May 9, 2021

The BJP won a second straight term in the recently concluded assembly polls in the state. The party won 60 seats in the 126-member Assam assembly while its alliance partners AGP got nine seats and UPPL six seats.

In the 2016 Assembly elections, the BJP had projected Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate and won, forming its first government in the Northeast. This time, the party had maintained that it would decide who would be the next chief minister after the elections.

Sarma, who joined the BJP after leaving the Congress six years ago has been credited as the primary architect who brought Northeast states within the party’s grip. He quit the Congress government of Tarun Gogoi in 2015. Himanta Biswa Sarma also held the health portfolio in the Sarbananda Sonowal cabinet.

The next year, the BJP won a spectacular victory in assembly elections in Assam, sweeping aside the Tarun Gogoi government which ruled the state for three successive terms.  

The Chief Minister’s post went to Sarbananda Sonowal — who was the sports minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government — and Sarma was made the chief of convener of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a BJP-led front of anti-Congress parties.

The next year the BJP formed government in Manipur despite winning fewer seats than the Congress.   Within the BJP, Sarma is reported to have overshadowed the Chief Minister.