Sonowal, Himanta reach Delhi; next Assam CM to be named today

New Delhi: Days after the saffron party-led alliance emerged victorious in the Assam assembly elections, incumbent Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday rushed to New Delhi for a meeting with BJP central leadership to discuss about the leadership issue of the next government.

The BJP central leadership had summoned Sonowal, who belongs to Assam’s indigenous Sonowal-Kachari tribals, and Sarma, the convenor of the North East Democratic Alliance to Delhi to discuss the leadership.

The BJP had not announced a chief ministerial candidate before the March-April polls in Assam.

In the 2016 elections, the BJP had projected Sonowal as its chief minister and won the election, forming the first saffron party government in the Northeast.

The BJP has been maintaining that it would decide who would be the chief minister of Assam after the elections.

In the results announced for the 126-member Assam assembly last Sunday, the BJP won 60 seats and its alliance partners AGP 9 and UPPL six seats.