Himanta Biswa Sarma: A look back at a glorious career and wishing the best in future
A week after the Assam legislative assembly election results were announced, clearing all speculations, Himanta Biswa Sarma has been declared as the next Chief Minister of Assam in the BJP Legislature Party meeting at Guwahati on 9th May by the national observers. His name was proposed by the former CM Sarbananda Sonowal.
In congratulating the new Chief Minister of Assam, let’s take a look back at the glorious life and work of the man-of-the-moment, Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Born on 1st February, 1969 at Jorhat, Sarma is the son of Late Kailash Nath Sarma and Smt Mrinalini Devi. He started his schooling at the Natun Saraniya Prathamik Bidyalaya of Gandhi Basti, Guwahati in 1975 and shifted to Kamrup Academy in 1979.
After passing the HSLC exams, Himanta Biswa Sarma took admission in the prestigious Cotton College in HS 1st year (Arts) in 1985. In 1987 he joined TDC 1st Year with Political Science as Honours.
Following this, Sarma took admission for Master Degree in Political Science in the same college under Gauhati University in 1991. He has also taken his LL.B degree from GU and Ph.D under Professor Niru Hazarika from GU. His topic for Ph.D was “North Eastern Council: A Structural and Functional Analysis.”
Showing astute leadership skills from a very young age, Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected to the students’ body of Kamrup Academy as the assistant general secretary (AGS) for the first time in 1982-83. He was elected the student body’s general secretary in his final year of high school in 1984-85.
His debut public speech was delivered in Patacharkuchi in 1979 at an AASU rally on the playground of Patacharkuchi Vidyapith. With the progress of Assam Agitation he was given more responsibility in the AASU to organise rallies and mobilise students. Himanta Biswa later became Secretary to the AASU’s Guwahati unit. He was the AGS in CCUS in 1987-88. He still holds the record of being the General Secretary of CCUS for three consecutive terms from 1988-1992.
Himanta Biswa joined as Member Secretary to the State Level Advisory Committee for Students and Youth Welfare in 1994, headquartered in Nehru Stadium. This Committee was chaired by Hiteswar Saikia, then CM and worked for welfare of students and youth clubs in Assam. He joined the Congress around that time.
He contested the state assembly election for the first time from Jalukbari LAC in 1996 and lost. From the following election in 2001 till 2021 he has been winning from that LAC consecutively for six terms.
Sarma was made the state minister of the Agriculture Department, P&D etc. in 2002 in the Congress Government of Tarun Gogoi. In 2006 he became the health minister, and was made the minister of Health, Education, Guwahati Development etc. in 2011.
Sarma resigned from Tarun Gogoi’s ministry in July 2014 and joined BJP in August, 2015. In 2016, he contested the assembly elections from the Bharatiya Janata Party. He had held some very important portfolios in Sarbananda Sonowal’s ministry.
Himanta Biswa is the convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a political coalition of BJP that was formed on 24th May, 2016.
Today, Himanta Biswa has most deservingly become the Chief Minister of Assam and NKTV wishes him all the luck and fortune so that realizes his most cherished dream of making Assam count as one of the top 5 states of India.