Guwahati: In the mid-1980s, as the the six-year-long anti-foreigners’ movement gained momentum in Assam, a young Himanta Biswa Sarma was seen running errands for stalwarts of Aasu spearheading the mass agitation, carrying files, fetching tea, and listening intently as leaders debated the future of the state.Few could have imagined that this boy, once on the periphery of politics, would one day become the chief minister of Assam, not once but twice, and emerge as BJP’s brightest star and a powerfully influencing strategist.Sarma’s political initiation came through his Aasu days. Those tumultuous years not only gave him political grounding, but also access to networks that would shape his career as he worked closely with Aasu leaders like Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Bhrigu Phukan, who later went on to form the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the govt.His first significant rise came in 1991–92, when he was elected general secretary of the All Guwahati Students’ Union, marking his formal entry into organised student politics. He was soon to be expelled from Aasu for his growing association with then chief minister Hiteswar Saikia, who made him join Congress.In 1996, he was handpicked by his mentor Saikia to contest the assembly election from Jalukbari. He made his debut with a defeat at the hands of his former leader in Aasu, Bhrigu Kumar Phukan. He bounced back in 2001, defeating Phukan and beginning a streak of six consecutive wins from the constituency.In between, he practised law in the Supreme Court and Gauhati high court. When Tarun Gogoi became the chief minister in 2001, he became one of the most powerful ministers by the sheer strength of his work that saw him rise from being a minister of state to a cabinet minister.His new style of administration that centred around reforms in health and education earned him praise, but his growing ambition clashed with Gogoi’s succession plans, especially with the grooming of Gogoi’s son. By 2014, Sarma resigned, setting the stage for a spectacular shift.In 2015, Sarma joined BJP, a move that recalibrated BJP’s trajectory in the state and later in the region. In 2016, BJP formed its first govt in Assam, dethroning Congress from 15 years of unbroken governance.He became the most powerful minister in the cabinet led by then chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal. It marked the reunion of the two after nearly three decades since their days in Aasu.On the day Sonowal took oath as the CM, Amit Shah formed the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and named Sarma as its convenor, who masterminded Pema Khandu’s switch to BJP in Arunachal Pradesh, forming its second govt in NE in 2016. This was followed by victories in Manipur (2017) and Tripura (2018) and expanded the party’s footprint in Nagaland and Meghalaya.In 2021, Sarma succeeded Sonowal as the chief minister. His tenure has been marked by bold, often controversial policies — eviction drives, crackdown on child marriage, closure of govt-run madrasas, and moves against polygamy. While supporters hail him as decisive, his critics accuse him of deepening social divide.On Tuesday Sarma took oath for his second consecutive term, becoming the first non-Congress leader in Assam’s history to achieve back-to-back tenures. This after he led BJP to its first single-party majority in the state and NDA’s highest tally of 102 seats in the house of 126.
