Pic credits: Northeast Now
At the BJP legislature party meeting held in Guwahati on 9th May 2021, Sarbananda Sonowal had proposed the name of Himanta Biswa Sarma after PM Modi gave his approval for Sarma's elevation as the Chief Minister of the state of Assam.
Himanta Biswa Sarma succeeded Sarbananda Sonowal as the fifteenth Chief Minister of Assam. The Bharatiya Janata Party won a second consecutive term in the recently concluded assembly polls in the state. The party won 60 seats out of 126-member Assam assembly while its alliance partners Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) got nine seats and United People's Party Liberal (UPPL) got six seats. This has been an extraordinary case where the sitting Chief Minister of the BJP Sarbananda Sonowal having received the majority for the second consecutive time was replaced by his cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who was a minister holding several portfolios in Sarbananda Sonowal’s cabinet.
Sarma was a member of the Congress and a key minister in the cabinet of Tarun Gogoi (3 time chief minister of Assam). Sarma was expecting himself to be projected as the next leader of the Congress party in Assam. But the Congress leadership chose Gaurav Gogoi, son of Tarun Gogoi as the Chief Ministerial candidate in Assam. It was then that Sarma chose to switch over to the BJP. In 2016 BJP formed the government in Assam for the first time. Sarbananda Sonowal was given the post of Chief Minister while Sarma, an ex-Congressman was given key portfolios which included health, education, finance, etc. in Sarbananda Sonowal’s cabinet.
Sarma was made the head of the North Eastern Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a faction of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Sarma soon delivered the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura to the BJP using his political tactics of forging alliances with the regional parties and in some cases making the members of the regional parties switch over to the BJP.
Sarma is the BJP’s trouble-shooter in the Northeast. Sarma was able to handle the anti-CAA protests being held in Assam and he ensured that the BJP was able to retain power in the 2021 elections. This time the BJP had not announced the chief ministerial candidate for the Assam elections despite having a chief minister like Sarbananda Sonowal whose tenure was not having any corruption charges. It was presumed that a change of chief minister might take place because of the work done in the northeast by Himanta Biswa Sarma to ensure political hold of the BJP in that region. On 10th May, Sarma took oath as the 15th chief minister of the state of Assam. Sarma’s rise in the BJP has been phenomenal. He is an exception who has been made a chief minister just in a span of six years of joining the BJP. Now, he has joined the elite list of Congressmen who have changed their party affiliation and who have become chief ministers. This elite list includes Mamata Banerjee, N.R. Rangasamy, Biju Patnaik, etc. The BJP relies heavily on the political ability of Sarma to get seats in the Northeastern region for the 2024 parliamentary elections. As the BJP is looking for people to lead the party to glory in the future, Himanta Biswa Sarma is a person to look out for.
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