BJP legislature party meeting in Guwahati today to name new Assam CM
Presented with tough choice of selecting a Chief Minister for Assam, from two equally dominant and influential State leaders — incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and State Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma — BJP Central held discussion with both leaders in Delhi. The State BJP legislature party will meet at Guwahati on Sunday.
The party is tacking a “difficult task” despite a handsome win as either way “some level of dissidence” cannot be ruled out, sources in the party said.
“Don’t ask questions. In short, a meeting of the BJP legislature party is likely to be held in Guwahati tomorrow...you will get your answers then,” Himanta retorted when questioned on the CM selection as he left BJP president JP Nadda’s residence here after meeting him, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP general secretary (organisation) BL Santosh.
Sonowal and Himanta first met central leaders separately before joining them together for a “long face-to-face discussion”.
Sarma was first to meet Nadda and other leaders before Sonowal followed the suit.
Both had left Gauwhati by 7 am as they were called by the Central leaders in Delhi by 10.30 to work out the issue as loyal MLAs of each camp sought to rally around their respective leaders since May 2 when the BJP won 60 seats while its alliance partners AGP got nine seats and UPPL six in 126 Assam Assembly.
Himanta, 52, a Brahmin, is known to be aspiring for the Chief Minister’s post which was denied to him in the Congress by Tarun Gogoi.
He crossed over to the saffron party in 2015 and charmed its leaders, particularly Shah, whom he is known to be close to and backed by.
Himanta’s challenge to the West Bengal Chief Minister on “exodus” of victims of the alleged TMC violence is seen by some as his “rising confidence”.
Sonowal, 59, the incumbent CM hails from the dominant Kacharis tribe, and has the credit of leading BJP to a successive second win in Assam, the biggest state in the north-east and is thus a “natural claimant” to the top post, said a BJP leader.
All in the BJP aver that Sonowal has a “clean image” via-a-vis his his contender who is currently sees as a ‘trouble-shooter’ for the party and is also heading the Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA). NEDA was floated by Sarma to unite non-Congress parties in the North-East.
BJP’s decision not to name incumbent Sonowal as party candidate for the top post has triggered a strong buzz that his Cabinet colleague Sarma is backed by the leaders “who matter in the party.”
However, Sonowal, who had a much longer stint in the party and been able to beat anti-incumbency against him makes the task of ignoring him an uphill task for the BJP leadership.
BJP vice-president Jay Panda who is State in-charge had said after meeting elected MLAs in Gauwhati that BJP’s parliamentary Board would decide the issue. The Board had, so far not met.