Witten by : Ritu Kashyap
‘Rajniti Axom’ (www.rajnitiaxom.com) is Assam’s 1st e-magazine explicitly for politics
Post the Assam assembly election in May 2016 , Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma was speaking exclusively to Ajit Kumar Bhuyan in Prag news where he expressed his desire to move to centre. This was the 1st time we have seen Mr Sarma talking about his interest in central politics. He also said that if he had to move, it would be in 2019 and the ultimate decision will be taken by high command. After that we have seen him expressing the same desire in many other interviews. Post Assam election when Modi was about to expand his cabinet in center, the national media kept Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma in the list of probable new faces in the Modi cabinet. However Mr Sarma denied the news through twitter immediately.
Now the questions are:
- Will Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma move to national politics after 2019?
- If yes, which Lok Sabha constituency will he select?
- What does the people of Assam want?
- What will be his role in centre and how this will impact Assam?
The answers of the 1st and 2nd question are relatively easy. If he himself expresses his desire to move to centre , we don’t think Amit Shah or Modi will stop him. After all, Sarma is the architect of BJP’s expansion in North East. Dr Sarma is most likely moving to centre and will contest from Guwahati Lok Sabha constituency. This will be his home constituency and also the easiest for him to win. Thus, he can also concentrate on party’s campaign on entire North East.
To get the answer of the 2nd question, ‘Rajniti Axom’ Assam’s 1st e-magazine explicitly for politics, did one survey. We asked the people of Assam whether they want Dr Sarma to move to centre. The people of Assam are divided on this. While 54.2% people wants him to move to centre , the rest 45.8% wants him to remain in Assam.
Now lets come to the 4th and the most important question. Lets think of a situation where Dr Sarma wins from Guwahati Lok sabha and BJP comes to power in centre in 2019. Most likely he is going a get an important portfolio in the the cabinet. It may be HRD, health, water resource or even finance. If this happens, than Assam or the entire North east will get a strong voice in the union cabinet. At present there are 2 ministers from North East and they are Rajen Gohain and Kiren Rijiju but none of them are cabinet minister .Dr Sarma already has good understanding with all the chief ministers and alliance partners in this region. Currently he is the convenor for North East democratic alliance(NEDA). If he becomes the central minister, he may well be made the chairman of NEDA instead of mere convener. Modi might make him the ‘in charge’ of all the issues related to North East. Then he will become the 1st point of contact for all the chief ministers of the North East. There will be some issues, that he will be able to resolve at his level. The rest, he has to take to the other ministers/prime minister after some basic filtering.
Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma is undoubtedly the most performing minister in the Sonowal cabinet. Many fear that if he goes to centre, it will have a negative impact in terms of performance of the state government. But knowing Dr Sarma for so many years, we don’t feel that he is going to leave the state politics completely. After all he is a political animal. He will definitely have a close eye on the performance of the state ministers. He will guide or advice them whenever required. Many in the current state cabinet ministers consider him as their idol. So overall the state and the entire North East will benefit immensely if Sarma moves to central politics.
At preset some news channels are running a story that Mr Sarma is conspiring against Mr Sonowal. This is quite surprising after India Today ranked Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma the 10th most powerful political leader in India. Come 2019 May , the news channels have to change their strategy. But it will be interesting to see what will happen if Modi can’t come to power in 2019. Will Dr Sarma still move to centre? We need to wait until 2019 to get an answer for this.
‘Rajniti Axom’ (www.rajnitiaxom.com) , Assam’s 1st e-magazine explicitly for politics released the 3rd issue in July’18. Our June’18 edition got more than 75,000 views. The top 3 most popular articles from June’18 are:
1. ২০১৯: বিজেপিৰ সম্ভাব্য প্ৰাৰ্থীৰ তালিকা – 24000 + views
2. বৰ্তমান সময়ত বিপিএফ দলে অবিজেপি চৰকাৰ গঠনৰ সমীকৰণক গুৰুত্ব নিদিয়ে : প্ৰবীণ বড়ো – 13,500+ views
3. ২০১৯ ত মোডী নে ৰাহুল? অ’পিনিয়ন প’ল জুন ২০১৮ – 8900+ views
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