Meet Himanta Biswa Sarma, one of the key men behind BJP’s historic victory in Assam. Sarma, formerly a minister in Assam CM Tarun Gogoi’s government, joined the BJP in 2015 after a spat with Gogoi.
In a thumping victory, Sarma has won from Jalukbari constituency of Assam. “Thanks to the people of Jalukbari for the historic win.Margin is approx 90000 @BJP4India,” Sarma tweeted.
Sarma, who had been the health and education minister of Assam, was also a close aide of Tarun Gogoi. Sarma had fallen out with Gogoi after the latter introduced his son Gaurav to politics in 2012.
In the past, Sarma has been vocal about his views on leaving Congress, his interactions with BJP President Amit Shah and Congress VP Rahul Gandhi saying, “Amit Shah is a hands-on president, I can talk to him anytime. He doesn’t need time to understand our political perspectives. He asks the right questions, he is serious when talking and when listening. With Rahul Gandhi, when we talked about serious issues his pet dog would come between us. He would not pay attention, he showed no interest in understanding the complexities. I left the Congress because it was doing nothing serious on the issue of Assamese identity. And, there is a family rule in Assam that didn’t allow Congressmen any scope to grow.”
Sarma passed his High School Leaving Certificate examination from Kamrup Academy Higher Secondary School, Guwahati in 1985 and joined Cotton College, Guwahati for further studies. He did his graduation in 1990 and post graduation in 1992 in political science from the Cotton College, Guwahati. Sarma did LLB from Govt. Law College, Guwahati and obtained Ph.D degree from Gauhati University. He was practicing law at Gauhati High Court from 1996 to 2001.
He was elected from Jalukbari in 2001 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2011. Sarma has served in the Assam government as minister (both in state and cabinet rank) in Planning & development, Finance, Health & education etc from 2002 to 2014.