AMN
Senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma will be the next Chief Minister of Assam.
At the legislature party meeting held in Guwahati today, Sarbananda Sonowal had proposed the name of Himanta Biswa Sarma after PM Modi gave his approval for Mr Sarma’s elevation, sources added.
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 polls, the BJP had projected Mr 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.
Mr Sarma, who switched to the BJP from the Congress six years ago, is credited as the architect who brought the northeast states within the party’s grasp. He also handled the health portfolio in the Sarbananda Sonowal government.
Himanta Biswa Sarma had quit the Congress government of Tarun Gogoi in 2015. He then promptly joined the BJP, becoming its key strategist for the northeast.