Won't contest next Assam polls: Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma 

Speculations are rife the BJP might want him to play a role in the Central politics and as such, he could be fielded in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Himanta Biswa Sarma (File | PTI)
Himanta Biswa Sarma (File | PTI)

GUWAHATI: Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, the man credited with the BJP’s stunning rise in the Northeast, says he will not contest the next Assam elections.

“I am not very willing to contest the 2021 Assam elections as my body needs a break,” Sarma told reporters. However, he hastened to add that he will be in the fray if the BJP so warrants.

Speculations are rife the BJP might want him to play a role in the Central politics and as such, he could be fielded in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Amidst such speculations, a section of BJP leaders demanded Sarma contest the LS polls from Kaliabor, which is held by the Congress’s Gaurav Gogoi, son of three-time former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

The Kaliabor seat has been held by the Gogoi family since 1991. Tarun Gogoi served as the Kaliabor MP for two terms from 1991-2001. After he was first elected as the Assam CM in 2001, he vacated the seat. In the by-election, the Congress fielded his brother Dip Gogoi from the seat and he won. He held the post till 2014. In 2014, Dip Gogoi made way for nephew Gaurav Gogoi who went on to win the election.

Local BJP leaders say Sarma should contest the 2019 LS polls from Kaliabor and bring an end to the reign of the Gogoi family in the constituency which is located in Central Assam.

Sarma had been with the Congress for 25 years until quitting the party in 2015 after falling out with Tarun Gogoi and being disillusioned with Congress president Rahul Gandhi. He had addressed a record number of rallies ahead of the 2016 Assam elections which the BJP had swept by winning 60 of the state’s 126 seats.

After opening the gateway to the Northeast by winning Assam, the BJP took the lead in forming the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), which is a conglomerate of non-Congress political parties of the Northeast, and appointed Sarma as its convenor. Ever since its formation, the BJP, along with its NEDA allies, went on to oust the Congress from one state after another in the region. With the Mizo National Front winning Mizoram, the Congress has been wiped out of the Northeast.

It was through Sarma’s political maneuvering that the BJP first conquered Arunachal Pradesh where barring three, all MLAs of the then ruling Congress defected to the BJP, making it a BJP government. In the subsequent elections in Manipur, Sarma was instrumental in helping the BJP form the government despite the Congress emerging as the single largest party.

Later, in the Meghalaya elections, Sarma, through his political engineering, helped the National People’s Party form a coalition government where the BJP is a constituent.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com