Himanta Biswa Sarma is all set to be the next chief minister of Assam. The announcement came after the newly-elected legislative members of the assembly ratified the decision during a meeting in Guwahati on Sunday. The decision was announced by the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar. Party sources told that Sarma’s name was proposed by incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.
Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and party General Secretary Arun Singh were present as central observers at the BJP Legislature Party meet. Baijayant Panda, BJP’s Assam in-charge was also present on the occasion. BJP leaders BL Santosh, Baijayant Jay Panda and Ajay Jamwal were also present at the Assam Legislative Assembly for the BJP Legislative Party meet where Himanta’s claim over the top post was upheld by the MLAs.
Amid speculation over the next chief minister, both Sonowal and Sarma were summoned to the national capital late on Friday.
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.
Sarma, who jumped ship from Congress just before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, has waited a long time for the party to make him the Chief Minister again. He has been making dogged attempts to insist on giving him the wheel. In the 2016 Assembly polls, the BJP had projected Sonowal as its chief ministerial candidate and won, forming the first BJP government in the northeast. This time, the party has been maintaining that it would decide who would be the next chief minister of Assam after the elections.
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.
Winning Assam for the second straight term was seemingly easier for the BJP than taking a call on the next chief minister. The delay of around six days since the results were declared on Sunday points to the dilemma of the leadership to choose between the two apparent contenders the incumbent CM, Sarbananda Sonowal, and Himanta Biswa Sarma, the BJP’s main strategist in the Northeast.
Sarma has been arguably the most influential politician in Northeastern India as of now and the BJP’s key man and troubleshooter in the region. He is the convenor of the NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance), a BJP led alliance of the regional parties in NE.