GUWAHATI: BJP’s key person in the northeast and Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said he does not want to contest the coming assembly election and is also not chasing a dream of becoming the chief minister.
“I am revealing it today that in 2020, on my birthday on February 1, I met BJP Assam president Ranjeet Kumar Dass and handed him my handwritten letter stating that I do not want to contest the 2021 assembly election. There is also a line in my letter that I will, however, abide by the directives given by my party,” Sarma said here at function where his fourth book was launched.
He added, “I will come back again to contest elections, but not in 2021.”
Sarma’s book, ‘Ek Sapunor Pom Khedi’ (Chasing a Dream), was launched by Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma, who in his speech hailed his ‘elder brother’, Sarma, as the political trouble shooter of the northeast and the force that has bound the chief ministers of all the NE states at personal level.
Later, in an interactive session, Sarma clarified that the dream he is chasing is not about his own political career but about changing the thought process of the future generation of Assam. “Assam’s new generation should be resurrected with Indian nationalism, Indian civilization and culture in their hearts and thoughts and without neglecting Assam for a single moment. Assam should be number one and by heart thought in action we should be true Indian …this is what Eta Saponor Pom Khedi (Chasing A Dream) is about,” Sarma said.
Asked why he does not deserve to be the chief minister of Assam, Sarma said many believe that he was unfit to become the chief minister because of the blunt way he addresses an issue. “At this age of 52, I cannot leave my principles to stand up for a cause. There will be names of lot of chief ministers etched in pages of history. They will come and disappear. But I want to do something which the future generation, for at least 100 years, will recognize and will say, look there was a person with different views and different ideologies,” he added.
The question whether Sarma would be the chief minister this time started cropping up during his last few days in Congress when he challenged former chief minister Tarun Gogoi’s leadership from 2015. He joined BJP and soon became the party’s key leader. But the party chose Sarbananda Sonowal over him as the chief minister.
This time, just when the question of chief ministership has returned to trouble him and BJP, Sarma has made it clear that he was after the chief minister’s post and was also not keen on contesting the election at all.