Himanta Biswa Sarma: BJP's gamechanger in the northeast
BJP's poster boy from the region, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has emerged as the party's deal maker, flying almost on a daily basis to all the three states of the northeast where polls where held in February this year in between running his own state.
FollowThe man who stitched together the alliances that saw BJP's sun rising in the northeast has done it again. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the chief minister of Assam and the BJP's regional poster boy, has emerged as the party's deal-maker, travelling practically daily to the three northeastern states whose elections were held in February of this year while also managing his own state.
First by picking on Neiphiu Rio as the man to bank upon and piggyback to power for a second term in the insurgency-ridden state of Nagaland and then by helping Delhi pick up the unassuming Manik Saha as the man who could undo the damage to the saffron party's popularity in the vital border state of Tripura. Not to mention bringing Conrad Sangma back to the bargaining table for a potential alliance with the right-wing party in case he fell short of the majority threshold after breaking off his NPP party's partnership with the BJP just before the election to Meghalaya's parliament.
Sangma is believed to have had two rounds of meetings with Sarma on the issue, and a rapprochement has been worked out.Â
"Since people put their faith in us with a bigger mandate than last time, there is a high probability of consolidation of the earlier partners," NPP spokesperson Ampareen Lyngdoh said when asked if NPP will ally with the BJP.Â
Even the Tipra Motha, built by the descendant of Tripura's former princely dynasty Sarma, was the target of backroom dealings. However, the more tenacious and conceivably cunning negotiators from among the former militants dispatched by Motha proved to be a harder nut to crack.
Former militant-turned-president of Tipra Motha had told PTI in an interview a few weeks back that attempts had been made for a pre-poll alliance without success.Â
"We met in Guwahati; we were invited by Assam CM (Himanta Biswa Sarma). Two more BJP leaders came from Delhi. We declined as they said we could not agree (to a separate Tipraland)," he said, though he held out the possibility of extending outside support under certain circumstances and subject to caveats.Â
Sarma, whose reputation is excellent in Delhi, originally caught people's attention as the BJP's first prominent campaigner from the area in distant Gujarat and Delhi.Â
Sarma has made every effort to aggressively advance the central platform of the right-wing party in his home state and in states where he has campaigned, whether it be the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), the passing of the Cattle Protection Act, calling for specific policy measures to slow down minority population growth, or the bulldozing of "illegal" villages.
Also read:Â Meghalaya Assembly Election 2023: Check out who won and who lost from their seats
However, interestingly, these pet projects of his, which could have made him unpopular in Christian-dominated states like Nagaland and Meghalaya, have become non-factors in his political wheeling dealings in these states.
(With inputs from PTI)
