Himanta, the driving pressure behind BJP’s rise to energy in Northeast

After long-drawn speculations on who would lead the brand new authorities in Assam, BJP’s legislature occasion on Sunday introduced that Himanta Biswa Sarma would succeed Sarbananda Sonowal as the subsequent chief minister of the state.
The resolution marked the top of an extended look forward to the 52-year-old, thought-about the driving pressure behind the BJP coming to energy in Assam in 2016 and the Northeast at massive.
Sarma has been actively concerned in politics since his scholar life and had a 20-year affiliation with the Congress. He had two former chief ministers as his mentors — Hiteswar Saikia and Tarun Gogoi – and served as an necessary minister in Gogoi’s cabinet.
However, in 2013-14, Sarma rebelled in opposition to Gogoi and tried to overthrow him because the CM. The rise up got here at a time when Gogoi was introducing his son Gaurav — now a Lok Sabha MP — to politics.
After the failed rise up, Sarma joined the BJP in 2015 and was the primary architect behind the saffron occasion driving to energy within the Assembly elections held in 2016. He was additionally named the convenor of NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance), a BJP-led alliance of regional events within the Northeast. In the 2020 basic elections, he performed a vital function within the BJP and its allies sweeping the seven states of the Northeast, with the alliance successful 17 out of 24 Lok Sabha seats within the area. Later that 12 months, he helped the saffron occasion get better misplaced floor after it confronted stiff opposition in Assam following the implementation of the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Sarma additionally held key portfolios within the outgoing Sonowal authorities, together with finance, well being and training and has been behind a few of the greatest improvement schemes launched on this time. For occasion, the Orunodoi scheme, which goals at benefitting women-headed households and specially-abled individuals, provides a month-to-month help of Rs 830 which is transferred to girls members of marginalised households by Direct Benefit Transfer process. The authorities says the scheme advantages round 22 lakh girls.
After the pandemic hit, Sarma led Assam’s efforts and often made the headlines for personally overseeing hospitals and quarantine centres and sometimes touchdown up for shock checks late at night time.
Sarma isn’t any stranger to controversies. In the run-up to the elections, he was criticised for his polarising feedback, by which he typically focused the Bengali-origin Muslim neighborhood of the state, particularly fragrance baron and MP Badruddin Ajmal, who leads the AIUDF, a celebration identified for its sturdy base amongst minorities and which is allied to the Congress.
At that point, he had instructed The Indian Express, “In Assam, it’s not possible to fight an election only by focusing on development, because the issue of identity is real. Issue of identity is very, very crucial for socio-economic life.”
In April, the Election Commission had banned Sarma from campaigning for 48 hours for threatening to place Hagrama Mohilary, the chief of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) — one other Congress ally — behind bars by a case with the NIA.
Soon after the EC relaxed the ban, Sarma restarted his campaigning duties. At his constituency of Jalukbari, he stated, “We don’t do communal politics. We have labored equally for the event of Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, everybody during the last 5 years. We have been profitable in upholding a brand new illustration of secularism in Assam.
“Assam doesn’t want communal politics. Assam wants that our language is protected. Assam is not against any person, Assam wants that our culture is protected. Assam wants that our community, land and hearth is protected. Assam wants that our civilisation and culture is protected,” Sarma had stated.
There have additionally been allegations of corruption in opposition to Sarma within the Saradha and Louis Berger scams.
Sarma’s spouse Riniki is a media entrepreneur and the proprietor of distinguished information channel News Live. Together, they’ve two kids aged 19 and 17, and Sarma routinely uploads pictures of his household on social media, in addition to photos of his school days.
On a lighter observe, Sarma is usually dubbed ‘mama’ on social media and is the topic of a number of viral memes and jingles. He can also be the creator of 4 books, together with one launched in February.