GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister-designate Himanta Biswa Sarma will be sworn in on May 12 in the presence of leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Sarma was on Sunday unanimously elected as the leader of BJP Legislature Party as well as NDA Legislature Party, clearing the decks for his second straight term as the Chief Minister. The BJP had appointed Union minister Jagat Prakash Nadda and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini as observer and co-observer respectively to oversee the election process.
Later on the day, Sarma was accompanied by the leaders of the NDA parties – BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) – met Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya at the Lok Bhavan and staked a claim to form the next government after submitting a list of the elected members supporting the NDA.
“Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya invited Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma to form the new government in Assam. The Governor will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Sarma as Chief Minister and to the members of the Council of Ministers,” according to an official statement.
This will be the NDA’s third consecutive term in Assam since the BJP-led alliance first came to power in 2016 under then CM Sarbananda Sonowal.
The NDA had bagged 102 of the state's 126 seats in the Assembly elections – 82 by BJP alone, and 10 each by AGP and BPF.
After his election as the NDA leader earlier in the day, Sarma thanked the people of Assam for electing the coalition for the third straight time. “I thank Prime Minister Narendra Modiji for taking Assam’s development to a level we could not imagine. The results of the election are a reflection of the development initiatives,” he said.
Himanta assured that Assam’s continuous development would be the NDA’s main agenda. He thanked Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the prevailing peace in Assam.
Sarma was first elected to the Assembly in 2001 and he has not lost a single election ever since then. He served as a minister in all three terms of former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi (2001-16). Gogoi’s third term was marked by dissidence over the leadership issue.
In 2015, Sarma and several other Congress legislators close to him quit the party and joined the BJP. The next year, the BJP had formed its first government in Assam. Called a 24X7 leader, Sarma is a master strategist who is widely known for his political acumen. His strong leadership was at display yet again in this year’s Assam elections which the NDA swept.