Meet Sonowal, the New Assam CM Who Delivered the State to BJP

Assam chief minister Sarbanand Sonowal is a suitable choice for both the BJP as well as the RSS in the North East.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonowal in Guwahati, May 2016. (Photo: IANS)

Sarbanand Sonowal is Assam’s only second tribal chief minister after legendary Jogen Hazarika in the 1970s.

The 53-year-old low-profile man hails from the Kachari tribe, and is expected to bring in a synthesis of tribal leadership and Hindutva politics to Assam.

His tribal background suited both the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in their quest for power beyond river Brahmaputra in the northeast. With his staunch opposition to the illegal migrants from Bangladesh, Sonowal gave legitimacy to the Hindutva politics of a ‘north Indian party’ among the tribals in the region.

The BJP was always an accepted political force for upper caste Hindu Assamese, but Sonowal and a few others like tea tribe leader Kamakhya Tassa gave the BJP new footholds. The election results in Assam today exemplify that paradigm shift.

Ratnadeep Gupta, Guwahati-based political analyst

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports (Independent Charge) Sarbananda Sonowal during Yuva Maha Shakti Samaroh in Guwahati, January 2016. (Photo: IANS)

Highlights from Sonowal’s Political Journey

• Sonowal’s career in politics started as a student. He served as the president of the All Assam Students’ Union from 1992 to 1999.
  
• He then joined the Asom Gana Parishad in 2001.
  
• In 2004, he successfully contested the Lok Sabha polls, clinching the seat for the first time from the Congress. However, he lost in 2009 from the same constituency.
  
• His career took a major turn when he switched to BJP in 2011 and became a union minister.
  
• He was made part of the union cabinet, despite the disapproval of many senior party members from the state.
  
• The decision to make him the party’s face in Assam wasn’t surprising given his clean image.
  
• The state unit, however, stood united behind him.
  
• He’s credited with challenging the controversial Illegal Migrants’ Determination by Tribunal Act in the Supreme Court. Later, the Act was scrapped.
  

Sonowal has delivered Assam to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah in an election where the so-called ‘Modi wave’ of 2014 was either on the wane or simply non-existent.

Trends available so far suggest Sonowal’s presence actually helped the BJP, which portrayed itself as a pro-tribal outfit for the first time. Besides Sonowal’s own Kachari tribe, other communities like Moran, Muttock, Tai Ahom, Koch Rajbongshi, Sootea and the Tea tribes flocked to the BJP.

Sonowal has attributed his success to the “family-like team work” of BJP leaders, including Modi, Shah and new entrant Himanta Biswa Sarma.