The big suspense! Sarbananda or Himanta to adorn the coveted chair of Chief Minister?

May 8: Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, MK Stalin in Tamil Nadu, N Rangasamy in Puducherry and Pinarayi Vijayan in Kerala have already been sworn in as Chief Ministers after the recently concluded Assembly polls. However, till now, inspite of getting a clear mandate, the BJP-led NDA has failed to finalise its Chief Minister in Assam. It seems to be a hard choice for the party to choose between the incumbent Chief Minister reputed for his clean image and his charismatic commander-in-chief Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma!

As per the rule book, the elected MLA’s sit for a meeting and finalises the captain of the ship. However, during the UPA regime, a paradigm shift was noticed when all such crucial decisions started to be taken by the High Command. Assam BJP seems to move along the footsteps of its political predecessor, the Congress. At a time, with the spike in Covid-19, when the state was supposed to face the health pandemic by a well settled government, Assam is taking too long to finalise its Chief Minister! As a result, the normal functioning of the government departments seems to lack its usual pace in governance.

Another shift in BJPs electoral policy was noticed during the current Assembly polls. In Assembly Elections during 2016, the party projected Sarbananda Sonowal as its Chief Minister before the polls, but during the 2021 Assembly Election, the party refrained from projecting anyone as the chief ministerial candidate. Though there is no harm in doing so, yet speculations were ripe as regards Himanta Biswa Sarma replacing Sarbananda Sonowal as the new Chief Minister. The high command or the key BJP leaders at the centre too kept this issue wrapped up in suspense, though leaders like Smriti Irani during poll campaign in Assam hinted towards winning the Assam Assembly Elections under the captainship of Sarbananda Sonowal.

On the day of counting, after the poll results were declared, Cachar BJP President Kaushik Rai when won the election from Lakhipur constituency, while replying to a query of a journalist, made it clear that his individual mandate for the next Chief Minister is with Himanta Biswa Sarma. Similar stray wishes were also expressed by a few more newly elected MLA’s. However, these being ‘individual opinions’, the party distanced itself from officially commenting on this matter.

If certain media reports are to be believed, than both Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma are supposed to fly to Delhi on Saturday morning, where they will be meeting BJP’s National President JP Nadda. Political circles are expecting that the knot for the top post would be unraveled in that very meeting, which would be followed by a meeting of the party MLA’s in Dispur, who would just be putting the formal seal to the already decided name by the high command. Both Sarbananda & Himanta are also expected to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday.

The central leadership of BJP is also not in a mood to antagonize either the incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal who has a good rapport with them by virtue of serving as a Union Minister in the Modi cabinet and possessing a clean image or Himanta Biswa Sarma, the blue eyed boy of BJP, who is also the trouble-shooter of the party not only in Assam but in the entire North East India. The choice seems to be very tough even for the top leadership of the party, as they at no cost would like to invite factionalism in Assam BJP.

The great suspense seems to continue the whole Saturday and only towards the evening or night, a clear picture is expected to emerge. Till then, anxiety and apprehension would continue to loom large in the political horizon of Assam.