Sonowal-Sarma teamwork key to BJP’s smooth ride in Assam - Hindustan Times
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Sonowal-Sarma teamwork key to BJP’s smooth ride in Assam

By, Guwahati
Nov 04, 2019 02:52 PM IST

Its mission to turn Assam saffron achieved with help from regional partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now faces a teamwork challenge to run its alliance government smoothly.

Its mission to turn Assam saffron achieved with help from regional partners, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now faces a teamwork challenge to run its alliance government smoothly.

BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, Sarbanada Sonowal, is greeted on his arrival for a meeting with the newly elected party legislators at the party office at Hengrabari in Guwahati.(PTI)
BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, Sarbanada Sonowal, is greeted on his arrival for a meeting with the newly elected party legislators at the party office at Hengrabari in Guwahati.(PTI)

Assam is a complex state with a difficult terrain, four official languages – Assamese, Bengali, Bodo and English – and pockets of diverse ethnic, religious and linguistic groups that have had a history of conflicts.

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Some commentators have said BJP’s main hurdle would be to unite disparate indigenous and Indian settler groups in its avowed fight against illegal migrants aka Bangladeshis.

But party insiders feel Sarbananda Sonowal, as chief minister, would have to be on his toes dealing with allies Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), and Himanta Biswa Sarma, an import from Congress who delivered as BJP’s poll manager.

Read: Checking infiltration top priority for BJP govt in Assam: Sonowal

Sonowal, 53, and Sarma, 47, began their socio-political career with the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU). But while Sonowal led the students’ body, Sarma was more of an errand boy before former Congress CM Hiteswar Saikia brought him to the party ahead of the 1996 polls. Both Sonowal and Sarma are law graduates.

Sarma took eight years to rise in the Congress, becoming CM Tarun Gogoi’s second-in-command after the party’s first of three consecutive electoral wins in 2001. His climb in the BJP has been phenomenally faster – nine months since joining the party in August 2015 after falling out with Gogoi over a leadership tussle.

Addressing the media after the BJP-led alliance bagged 86 seats on Thursday, Sonowal thanked Sarma almost as an afterthought. “You should not read much into it,” a senior party leader said, admitting one could not expect the former Gogoi protégé, more experienced in state politics than the older Sonowal, to be content with the number two slot for long.

“If the BJP is thinking long-term, it should be sincere in addressing the issues that matter most to the people of Assam and implementing its vision document. Everything else will fall in place,” political commentator Dileep Chandan told HT.

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The BJP leadership has indicated it wants Sarma to focus on a bigger agenda – use Assam as the base to give the party a firm foothold in seven other north-eastern states.

Sonowal also has management of allies to think of.

AGP’s founder-president and former CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta had, before the results, reminded Sonowal he was the BJP’s CM candidate, not of the alliance. And the BPF, interested more in a package for Bodoland Territorial Council, comprising four western and north-central districts, has a better equation with Sarma than Sonowal.

While in Congress, Sarma was instrumental in forging the Congress-BPF alliance government in 2006. The Congress that year had won 53 seats, 11 short of the majority mark.

“This (Sonowal-Sarma gelling) is in the domain of speculations. We trust our central leadership to handle any situation,” a BJP leader said, declining to be quoted.

Watch an interesting conversation with Indian politician & former Union Minister of State, Milind Deora. HT’s senior journalist Kumkum Chadha talks to him about his life in politics & beyond. Watch Now!
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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Rahul Karmakar was part of Hindustan Times’ nationwide network of correspondents that brings news, analysis and information to its readers. He no longer works with the Hindustan Times.

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