Who will be the next CM in Assam?
BJP leaders in Assam pushed the ball to the parliamentary board of the party headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi even as the saffron party and its allies on Sunday headed towards absolute majority in the Assembly.
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"That decision will be taken by the parliamentary board. The party is sending an observer, will talk to all stakeholders and a decision will be taken based on his report," Ranjeet Kumar Dass, president of Assam unit of BJP told reporters on Sunday afternoon. Union minister Jitendra Singh also did not give a clear answer whether the party will go with Sarbananda Sonowal or decide a new one.
Party insiders said the contest for the CM post was between Sonowal and senior party leader Himanta Biswa Sarma, who switched from Congress to BJP in August 2015. Himanta, 52 quit Congress after leading dissidence against former CM Tarun Gogoi reportedly after the party rejected his wish to be the next CM.
Sarma and some of his loyalist MLAs switched over to BJP in August 2016 but the saffron party had already named Sonowal as their CM candidate. "Sarma deserves to be the next CM as he has not only performed well as minister but also led the party to victory since 2016. He has also proved himself to be an efficient crisis manager for the government and the party as well," a BJP leader said.
Sonowal's loyalists, on the other hand said the Prime Minister was in favour of him due to his "clean and honest image" and his performance as a union minister between 2014 and 2016 and as CM in the past five years. Sonowal, 59 was a president of All Assam Students' Union before he joined AGP and later switched over to BJP.