Assam Elections 2016: The fall and rise of Himanta Biswa Sarma

Himanta Biswa Sarma is known as an able and dynamic leader, a strategist, an opportunist, a traitor, a muscleman and a manipulator. His long political career spanning 15 years has not been free of different charges levelled against him from time to time. But the 47-year-old still holds sway over politics in Assam. Sarma is with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a contender from Guwahati’s prestigious Jalukbari constituency which goes to polls in the second phase of assembly election on April 11.

While in the Congress under the leadership of present Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Sarma has got bouquets and brickbats. He managed to establish himself as a tough yet efficient party member when he was with the ruling Congress. Charges of corruption were levelled against him when he was a minister in the state government. However, his loyalty towards the party never seemed to wane.

Sarma's move to BJP

Sarma knew how and when to play the masterstroke. He ‘betrayed’ the Congress when he realised that he would not get the chance to become chief minister after Tarun Gogoi relinquishes his chair. Gogoi enjoys a great amount of support from the Congress high command.

Sarma engineered defections against Gogoi, who had treated him as his most "trusted lieutenant". He resigned as the state’s Health and Education Minister on July 21, 2014.  Later, Sarma said that Gogoi had used him for his political gains while Gogoi said “he was my blue-eyed boy and I trusted him blindly”. Sarma said his annoyance at Gogoi’s rule was based on principles and not political gain.

On August 23, he announced he would join the saffron party. Sarma was the MLA of Jalukbari constituency until his resignation from the state assembly on September 15, 2015. He has served three terms as an MLA.

Now, Sarma is the convener of BJP’s Election Management Committee for the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam. 

Accusations levelled against Sarma

According to a Times of Assam report, Sarma’s political aspirations began during his student life. As a general secretary of Cotton College, his invitation to Hiteshwar Saikia, who was hated by most of the student community for his anti-Assam agitation, for a college programme had been controversial.

During his tenure as minister in the Assam government, Sarma has been accused of being involved in multi-crore corruption cases. “Who does not indulge in corruption?” Sarma reportedly asked when Sarma was accused of being involved in multi-crore corruption cases by the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) chief Akhil Gogoi. 

As a minister in the Gogoi Cabinet, he was in the news when Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sleuths raided his home and office in connection with the Saradha scam. Sarma’s alleged involvement in the Louis Berger bribery case also put a question mark on his integrity. The Louis Berger scam came to the fore after the US Department of Justice found the Louis Berger guilty of paying kickbacks to officials, including ministers, for water supply projects in Guwahati and Goa. At the time, Himanta held the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) portfolio. Louis Berger was a consultant for a water supply project being implemented by the Guwahati Municipal Development Authority (GMDA) with funds received under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).  

In December 2011, ULFA claimed that Sarma had been part of its cadre and had been part of extortion bids. Sarma has denied these allegations. On March 24, 2016, a statement by Paresh Barua faction of the ULFA (Independent) accused Sarbananda Sonowal of using ULFA’s cadre to kill Sourab Bora, a student leader at the Dibrugarh University, on May 27, 1986. The statement also accused Sarma of collaborating with Sonowal and using ULFA to kill Bora and social worker Sanjoy Ghose. 

Sarma's popularity

It would be unfair to say Sarma gained his present popularity only through muscle power and his cunning. He has done some good work (in terms of visibility and not statistics) as the state’s health and education minister. Sarma has the image of a performer. Under his leadership, the health sector in Assam witnessed a transformation and three medical colleges came up in Jorhat, Barpeta and Tezpur. He also initiated work for five more medical colleges in Diphu, Nagaon, Dhubri, North Lakhimpur and Kokrajhar, which are now in various stages of implementation.

In the education sector, Sarma’s achievements have been acknowledged even by his strongest critics. It was under his leadership that more than 50,000 teachers were appointed for the first time through Teachers Eligibility Test (TET). In campaigns for this election, Sarma has promised that the appointment of teachers through TET would be started again if the BJP came to power in the state capital Dispur.

A great catch or future troublemaker for BJP?

In political circles, Sarma is known as the main man behind the Congress’ successive victories in the last two Assembly elections, especially the 2011 polls. BJP’s central leadership knew very well that Sarma would be a great catch for them. It is an open secret that he had joined the BJP to fulfil his ambition of becoming the next chief minister. But here again, he has been given the role playing the ‘trusted lieutenant’ to Sarbananda Sonowal, the chief ministerial candidate of the BJP. Sarma and Sonowal have previously had a bitter rivalry with Sonowal opposing his entry into BJP. However, the saffron party has got an alternative to Sonowal in the form of Sarma, one they can test in future if required.

ut, in the long run, can an ambitious man like Sarma be happy with the role of a ‘lieutenant’ or as a minister in the likely to be Sonowal-led state government at Dispur? How long will the Sarma loyalists, who joined the BJP in his footsteps, be able to suppress their ambition of becoming ministers under Sarma’s leadership? Only time will tell.

Sarma has said that a chief ministerial ambition at this stage is not realistic. However, he is confident that the BJP will award him sufficiently if he manages to deliver.

Poll analysts say that Sarma's growing popularity could be a worrying factor for the BJP in the coming days. He is the only political leader who is equally popular in both the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys and has great influence among the younger generation.

Sarbananda Sonowal’s politics has mainly revolved around the issue of Assamese identity, in which the Bengalis are more or less left out, but Sarma has managed to get back the trust of the Bengali-speaking population in the state, calling for differential treatment for Hindu Bengalis because they were victims of Partition. 

Sarma’s prospects in this election

In this election, Sarma’s campaign strategies seem to have worked in favour of the BJP as well as him. He has successfully turned the issue of Bangladeshi immigrants into the core theme of this election. His election slogan to protect ‘Jati, Mati Aaru Bheti’ (identity, land and base) is doing wonders for the BJP.

In a campaign speech reported by the Hindu, Sarma referred to Lachit Borphukan, the Ahom general who defeated the advancing Mughal Army on the Brahmaputra at Saraighat in AD 1671. Sarma called this election the last battle of Saraighat between the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance and Congress and the AIUDF.

Sarma’s chances of winning the polls from the Jalukbari constituency are also bright this time as they had been in the earlier three Assembly elections in 2001, 2006 and 2011. This time, the Congress has fielded a new candidate, youth leader Niren Deka, against a heavyweight like him.  

During his tenure as an MLA, development works were undertaken in his constituency, but several local residents say much more needs to be done. Sources say that Sarma has an edge over all the candidates because the residents of the constituency don’t have a better alternative to him.