Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday took oath as Assam Chief Minister for a second consecutive term, becoming the first non-Congress leader in the state’s history to get back-to-back tenures. In a social media post, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Today is a special day for Assam! For the third consecutive time, the NDA government has assumed office. I congratulate Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on taking charge. He has established himself as a skilled administrator and has carried out transformative work for the state. My best wishes to him for his upcoming term.”
Observers say PM Modi’s remarks summed up what Sarma has brought to the BJP’s table.
Sarma’s exit from the Congress and entry into the BJP in 2015, in fact, marked one of the most significant political shifts in the Northeast, strengthening the BJP’s expansion and right-wing Hindu nationalist politics in the region. His move followed differences with the Congress leadership and allegations that then chief minister Tarun Gogoi was promoting his son, Gaurav Gogoi.
Earlier this year, when former Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah resigned, dealing a major setback to the party, Sarma recalled a turning point in his political career. He claimed that in 2014, senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had asked him to choose a date for taking oath as chief minister, but intervention by Rahul Gandhi changed the course of events.
“I thank Rahul Gandhi for not making me CM then,” Sarma had said, adding that had he become a Congress chief minister, history would have remembered him “with disgrace” because he would not have been able to work for Sanatan Dharma or the Assamese people.
It has been nothing but a spectacular political run for Sarma — from student politics to Congress back rooms to becoming the state’s most prominent political face — admired by supporters for his administrative drive and political acumen, criticised by opponents for deepening polarisation.
Beginning his political journey during the Assam Agitation around the 1980s with the All Assam Students’ Union, the multiple-term MLA from Jalukbari is one of the BJP’s key strategists in the Northeast. Known for his organisational skills and ability to deliver electoral victories, Sarma’s association with the Assam Agitation — a movement against illegal infiltration — had already associated him with issues core to Assamese identity—migration, regional self-assertion etc.
His first major political breakthrough came when he won from Jalukbari as a Congress MLA. This marked the beginning of his rapid rise under Gogoi. Over the next few years, he handled several important portfolios and emerged as one of the Congress’s most prominent leaders in Assam.
In 2015, Sarma walked out of the Congress, accusing it of internal dysfunction and leadership failures — a move that reshaped Assam politics and accelerated the Congress’s decline in the state. Soon after joining the BJP, Sarma was appointed convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), where he played a key role in expanding the party’s influence across the region. He was one of the strategists who helped engineer BJP’s 2016 victory, transforming the party from an emerging force into the ruling power in t6he state. He first assumed office as Assam chief minister in May 2021.
In 2026, he led the BJP-led NDA to a landslide victory, engineering defections from rival Congress amidst attempts of a comeback, making the BJP the first non-Congress party in the state to win three consecutive Assembly elections. Sarma’s aggressive positioning on issues core to saffron ideology such as illegal immigration, eviction drives, ‘madrasas’ and demographic concerns have made him a highly polarising figure. Critics accuse him of pursuing divisive politics centred on migration and identity, supporters, meanwhile, see him as a strong protector of Assamese culture and interests.