The out spoken and charismatic Himanta Biswa Sarma has been named the new chief minister of Assam, as confirmed by the Assam Tribune. Outgoing Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal submitted his resignation letter to Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi at Raj Bhavan.
The NDA alliance will meet the Governor Sunday evening and the oath taking of the new government will take place at Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra on Monday.
Incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday met with BJP chief J P Nadda and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah to discuss about the leadership issue of the next government, five days after the saffron party-led alliance emerged victorious in the assembly elections
Student Politics
Sarma had an early start, joining the All Assam Students Union (AASU) in 1980. He was, at the time, in Class 6. By 1981, as the crackdown on AASU was beginning, Sarma was tasked with carrying the press releases and materials for the press every evening.
A few years later, he had risen to the position of AASU’s Guwahati unit’s general secretary.
Political career
Sarma was elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly from Jalukbari for the first time in 2001 on a Congress ticket. He defeated Asom Gana Parishad leader Bhrigu Kumar Phukan and was re-elected in 2006 and then for a third consecutive term in 2011. As a minister in successive Congress governments, Sarma held positions like those of Minister of State for Agriculture, Planning & Development, Finance, Health, Education, and Assam Accord Implementation from 2002 to 2014.
In lead up to the Assam Assembly election 2016, Sarma wanted to be projected as the face of the Congress in the state and held the then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi responsible for the grand old party’s drubbing in the North eastern state in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. However, the Congress leadership in Delhi continued to vouch for Gogoi which miffed Sarma, and he led a Congress faction out of the party and joined the BJP.
Himanta Biswa Sarma secured the Jalukbari for the fifth consecutive term, beating Congress opponent Romen Chandra Borthakur by 1,01,911 votes.
Responsible for BJP’s surge in NE
In 2016, Sarma was appointed convener of the then-newly formed North East Democractic Alliance (NEDA) – a political coalition formed by Bharatiya Janata Party. The motive of the new political front was to protect the interest of the people of the region as well as uniting non-Congress parties in Northeast India.
In 2018, Sarma with the BJP’s Tripura in-charge, managed to break the entire top leadership of the state Trinamool Congress and the Congress to bring them into the BJP fold as well as build an Assam-style alliance with the Indigenous Peoples Front of Tripura (IPFT).
Personal history
Born on 1 February, 1969, to Kailash Nath Sarma and Mrinalini Devi, Sarma studied at Guwahati’s Kamrup Academy School and Cotton College. He was general secretary (GS) of Cotton college Student’s Union from 1991 to 1992.
He has an LLB From Government Law College and a PhD from Gauhati University. Sarma practised law at Gauhati High Court from 1996 to 2001.
He married Riniki Bhuyan Sarma on 7 June 2001, with whom he has a son and a daughter. In 2017, he was elected as the Badminton Association of India president.