New Delhi: Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam minister and the BJP’s point man in the Northeast, is likely to contest the upcoming assembly elections, ThePrint has learnt.
This adds a fresh twist to the debate on the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in Assam, given that the party has been non-committal on declaring incumbent CM, Sarbananda Sonowal, as its candidate.
Ranjeet Kumar Dass, the state president of Assam BJP, told ThePrint Friday that Sarma will be contesting the elections.
His name has been sent by the state leadership in the list of candidates to the national leadership, said Dass.
Sarma’s decision to contest polls is also likely to put an end to speculation about his induction into the Union Cabinet. However, at the same time, it has triggered fresh debate about whether he will be rewarded with the CM seat for his role in BJP’s expansion in the Northeast.
In February this year, Sarma had said that he did not wish to participate in the upcoming elections and had also communicated the same to the state leadership, including Dass.
However, at the same, he had also said that if the party decides to field him as a candidate, he will follow the instructions.
“The party does not function on individual choices, whether it is about contesting elections or not. Once you are a party worker, whatever decision the party takes you have to follow that. Last time, for instance, he made his mind to contest Lok Sabha elections but then the parliamentary board decided that no you should not contest Lok Sabha elections so he agreed. Now if the parliamentary board will decide he has to contest he will have to contest,” Dass told ThePrint.
The Assam BJP President added: “He (Sarma) will definitely contest the assembly elections. We have sent his name to the party leadership. If you are part of the party you will have to fight.”
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CM candidate likely to be announced after polls
Dass, however, remained non-committal about his party’s choice of chief ministerial candidate, stating that when a government is there, a candidate need not be announced.
“When there is no government one brings in a face. PM Modi’s name was announced before 2014 but it wasn’t announced for 2019 because the public is aware. Hence, CM also, we don’t announce the name of the CM. Media has definitely been asking me this question but my workers have not raised this issue with me,” he said.
However, according to a senior BJP leader, who wished to remain unnamed, while Sarma had to content himself with a minister’s post earlier, he has been eyeing the post of chief minister.
“Rather than declaring any name currently, it felt better to take this up after the results are announced,” the leader said.
ThePrint had earlier reported how Sarma had single-handedly managed the Covid-19 pandemic in the state, emerging as the face of the crisis.
As a result, this had brought to fore the imbalance in Assam’s leadership, with Chief Minister Sonowal playing second fiddle to Sarma, a former Congress leader who has emerged as the most prominent face of the BJP in the Northeast.
Sarma is also the convener of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and is considered to be BJP’s main political brain in the region.
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