Suspense Over Assam CM To End Today? Himanta Sarma Likely To Stake Claim Instead Of Sarbananda Sonowal

While several states have their newly elected Chief Minister swearing-in, Assam is still in the dark about who gets to hold the top post in the 126-member state assembly. Assam's incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his cabinet colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma are the two main contenders.

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New Delhi: Ahead of the key BJP meeting likely to happen today, the party named Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar and its general secretary Arun Singh as central observers for choosing the leader of its legislative party in Assam.

The legislative party meeting to be held at 1 PM today will choose the next Assam Chief Minister after the BJP-headed alliance won a majority in the recently concluded assembly polls. But even ahead of the meet, according to the latest inputs, Himanta Biswa Sarma is likely to stake the claim for forming the government in front of governor at 4 pm.

For the uninitiated, the BJP had not announced a chief ministerial candidate ahead of the Assembly polls in Assam wherein the saffron party eventually won 60 seats while its alliance partners AGP and UPPL managed nine and six seats, respectively.

While several states have their newly elected Chief Minister swearing-in, Assam is still in the dark about who gets to hold the top post in the 126-member state assembly.

Assam's incumbent Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and his cabinet colleague Himanta Biswa Sarma are the two main contenders.

Apparently, Sarma, having been at number 2 for long, is now looking to take over the wheel while Sarbananda Sonowal is also keen to hold on to the post.

Sonowal served as the union sports minister before moving to Assam while Sarma has also had an interesting journey.

Himanta Biswa Sarma crossed over from Congress before the 2014 Lok Sabha election and has risen to gain prominence as of CM Sonowal. He is considered as a big factor in the party's victory in the 2016 election, the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and the recently held election where BJP managed to retain power easily.

Now as per sources, with Himanta likely to become the Chief Minister and Sarbananda Sonowal might be given a place in union ministry or be assigned an important position in the central leadership.

Both were called to the national capital on Saturday to discuss the formation of the new BJP government with BJP chief JP Nadda at his residence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was also present in the meeting.

After the meeting, Sarma said, "The Assam BJP legislative party will probably meet tomorrow in Guwahati. You will get all the answers after the meeting."

Now, it appears that the final announcement about the Assam Chief Minister is likely to happen today, ending all suspense over the same.