Himanta Biswa Sarma Set to Return as Chief Minister of Assam After BJP's Landslide Victory

Himanta Biswa Sarma was elected as the leader of the BJP legislature party in Assam on Sunday and is set to return for his second consecutive term as the chief minister of Assam. Sarma will meet the governor later in the day to stake claim to form the new government. In the recently concluded elections in the northeastern states, the BJP won 82 seats, leading the National Democratic Alliance to a whopping 102-seat victory with Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) winning 10 constituencies each. This is the NDA’s third consecutive win in Assam , with the BJP clocking its highest-ever tally in the state. This sweep — in which the NDA parties have won all seats in the state where ethnic Assamese, tribal, and Bengali-Hindu voters account for the bulk of the population, barring two, of which one has gone to the Congress and the other to Congress ally Raijor Dal — is not just that of the BJP, but of Himanta Biswa Sarma . In both 2016 and 2021, it had secured 60 seats on its own and formed the government with its ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), along with the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) in 2016 and the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) in 2021, cobbling together a majority of 86 in 2016 and of 75 in 2021.