JOIN USHimanta Biswa Sarma: Man behind lotus bloom in Assam
A few years ago, when the Congress reigned supreme in Assam with no challenger in sight, Himanta Biswa Sarma was late Tarun Gogoi’s ‘trusted lieutenant’. Ambitious Sarma also had the desire to be the chief minister of the state.
As Assam inched closer to the 2016 Assembly polls, Sarma saw a chance. But when the Congress decided to go ahead with Gogoi as its CM candidate for the polls, Sarma, according to Gogoi, led a dissidence against him for a year and eventually joined the BJP in 2015.
His fortunes didn’t change in the BJP either. The saffron party named Sarbananda Sonowal as its CM candidate. But Sarma had the last laugh as he steered the BJP to its maiden victory in the state in the 2016 polls, enabling it to wrest power from the 15-year-old Gogoi government.
The victory not only fulfilled Sarma’s target to oust Gogoi from power but also made him as powerful as he was in the Congress.
Sarma, who famously took a potshot at Rahul Gandhi, saying the Congress leader was busy feeding his dog when he wanted to discuss issues relating to Assam, has become the most vocal and visible face in Assam politics, championing the BJP’s pet causes with ease in his saffron avatar.
“He has been one of the efficient faces in Assam politics today, who successfully pursued the neo-liberal agenda along with populist schemes,” says Akhil Ranjan Datta, a political analyst in Guwahati, about Sarma, who has a PhD and four books in Assamese under his belt.
“He has the capacity to reach out to every section of the society through various means. He has made politics both vibrant and also a domain of entertainment.”
Sarma’s strength was visible during the CAA protests. By taking a tough stand in controlling the violent protest against the government in 2019, the 52-year-old, once again, proved himself to be a crisis manager for the party.
As convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance, a forum of BJP’s allies in the Northeast, Sarma turned the tide in favour of his party during the political crisis in other states of the Northeast. Himanta was equally credited for BJP’s better show in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Assam when it improved its tally to nine from seven in 2014.
It is no surprise that the BJP is again banking on Sarma and his capacity to steer the party to victory in the upcoming Assembly polls by vanquishing “solid grand alliance” cobbled up by the Congress.
“This time our (BJP and allies AGP and UPPL) target is to win 100-plus seats,” Sarma is heard repeatedly saying. In 2016, the BJP bagged 60 out of 126 seats and formed the government along with AGP (14) and Bodoland People’s Front (12).
A few months before Sarma joined the BJP in 2015, the party released a “chargesheet” in New Delhi against the then Congress leaders, alleging that Sarma was part of a water supply scam involving a US-based firm apart from the Sarada scam.
Sarma’s opponents suspect his involvement in the alleged Rs 1,000-crore scam in North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council, which rocked the state during Gogoi’s tenure. But not much has been heard about the allegations as Sarma’s clout grew in the BJP.
Sarma’s frequent statements targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims, however, have not gone down well with many of his supporters. This, according to Datta, is part of the polarisation tactics of the BJP in Assam, where the foreigner issue is always predominant.
“By pursuing the Hindutva agenda strongly, he also contributed towards dismantling the consensus on core political issues like NRC and the Assam Accord. He has taken the loyalty to the central leadership to a new height which is very unhealthy in the long run,” says Datta.
Sarma’s supporters hope the loyalty is rewarded as the ruling BJP has decided to name the CM candidate after the results on May 2, unlike in 2016 when the party projected Sonowal before the polls.