Sarma to take over as next Assam CM
GUWAHATI: North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convener Himanta Biswa Sarma was on Sunday named the next chief minister of Assam, pipping incumbent Sarbananda Sonowal to the top post, after being elected unanimously as the leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislature party.
The chief minister-designate later called on governor Jagdish Mukhi at the Raj Bhawan and staked claim to form government. The governor will administer him the oath of office on Monday, people aware of the developments said.
The decision to pick Sarma as the Assam CM was taken at the first legislature party meeting of the 60 newly elected MLAs of the BJP held at the state assembly after days of backroom lobbying in Guwahati and official meetings in Delhi following the announcement of assembly poll results on May 2.
Sarma’s name as the BJP’s legislature party leader was announced by Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar who, along with the party’s national general secretary Arun Singh, was the central observer for the meeting.
“I asked other MLAs if they had any other names in mind. No other name was suggested. Since the name of Sarma, a senior minister in our state government was the only one that was proposed, he is unanimously chosen as the legislature party leader,” Tomar said after the meeting. Sarma’s name for the post was proposed by Sonowal and seconded by BJP state president Ranjeet Kumar Dass. It was also supported by newly elected MLA from Halflong, Nandita Golosa.
On Saturday, the two main claimants to the top post, Sonowal and Sarma, were summoned by the party leadership to Delhi, where they held several rounds of meetings with BJP national president JP Nadda.