Guwahati: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to be the next Chief Minister of Assam.
The decision was taken after the newly elected legislators met today at Guwahati under three central observers of the BJP.
Meanwhile, the sitting Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal resigned from his on May 9. He met with the governor of Assam, Prof. Jagdish Mukhi at the Raj Bhawan in Guwahati and tendered his resignation.
The name of incumbent CM Sarbananda Sonowal and incumbent health minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma had been doing the rounds ever since the Assam Elections 2021 concluded and the BJP-led alliance came to power.
The confusion prevailed as the BJP didn’t announce its chief ministerial candidate even days after sweeping the Assam Assembly polls.
Himanta Biswa Sarma has won from the Jalukbari constituency and was holding the portfolio of finance and health in the outgoing BJP government.
Sarma’s political career started in 1996 when he joined the Indian National Congress. He was first elected as MLA from the Jalukbari Assembly constituency in 2001 on a Congress ticket.
He had defeated Assam Gana Parishad leader Bhrigu Phukan. Since then he has been winning the Jalukbari seat. He won the seat four times - 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016, 2021. He contested from the Jalukbari seat for the sixth time in this election.
Sarma has served as the Assam Education, Health & Family Welfare, Agriculture, Planning and Development, PWD and Finance portfolios.
He is Assam’s current Finance, Health, Planning & Development, Education and PWD minister.
It was in May 2015 that Himanta Biswa Sarma a frontrunner of the Congress in Assam, jumped ship and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Instantly he became an integral part of the saffron party in Assam and within months he became the lead face of BJP not just in Assam but in the whole of Northeast.
He was made the NEDA (North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) Convenor and since 2015, Sarma has played a key role in making Northeast ‘Congress Mukt’ slogan of BJP. (UNI)