Handling No.2 Himanta may be Assam CM Sarbananda's biggest challenge

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The ceremony

• Sarbananda Sonowal took oath as the 14^th Chief Minister of Assam on Tuesday, 24 May
• The ceremony was attended by PM Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and all NDA CMs

The challenge

• One of Sonowal\'s biggest challenges will be how to handle the de facto number two, Himanta Sarma
• Sarma tried hard to canvas for the Deputy CM\'s post, but the BJP said no

More in the story

• Why Sarma is the focal point despite Sonowal being the face of the BJP\'s campaign
• An important Assam BJP leader was missing from the ceremony. Who, and why?

On Tuesday, 24 May, Sarbananda Sonowal took oath as the Chief Minister of Assam. The 53-year-old, who was elected from the important river island constituency of Majuli, is the 14th CM of the state, which figured high on the BJP's agenda for increasing its footprint beyond the Hindi heartland.

Himanta Biswa Sarma, the former Congress number two in the state, whose coming to the BJP was seen as a coup against then-Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's hold on the state, also took oath as a Cabinet Minister, along with nine others. It is feared that his larger-than-life image in the state and presence in the Cabinet may overshadow Sonowal.

Sarma not Deputy CM

In the run-up to the oath-taking ceremony, there were reports that Sarma wanted a bigger share of the pie. Sources say that Sarma was eyeing the Deputy Chief Minister's position.

Even according to BJP strategists who have been involved in the campaign, it was Sarma's election management skills and popular support that helped the BJP register a spectacular victory, even more than Sonowal's clean image.

Some say Sarma was the only one who had a chopper at his disposal; even Sonowal had to requisition one. There were also rumours that a lot of independent candidates in the fray owe their allegiance to him.

However, an informed source says there was no convention which would have made the BJP heed his request. It would have set a bad precedent, another RSS worker in the state pointed out, while adding that the party believes that the post of Deputy Chief Minister can only be carved out for alliance partners in states where the BJP is in a coalition government.

Giving him the Deputy CM's post would also have created an alternate power centre, which the BJP wanted to avoid. It is learnt that Sarma will still get plum portfolios. He has also been made the BJP's Northeast convenor.

Negotiations between Sarma and Ram Madhav, the BJP leader in-charge of Assam, went on till late Monday night at a posh Guwahati hotel. "He did not have a choice," says the RSS worker. "If the BJP had managed 65 seats [on its own, it finished with 60], then he may have had a chance to flex his muscles," he points out.

"He knows how to play his cards," says another senior BJP leader in the state. "He will wait for the opportune time to get a chance at the Centre.

Accommodation in the Union government was one of the options put on the table for Sarma when he joined the BJP. A source close to Sarma says at this point, all such options are open for him.

Sonowal's track record

It will be interesting to see how Sonowal, who has no prior experience of governing a state, handles Sarma, who was the de facto number two in the Gogoi regime. Sarma is hailed as the most successful health and education minister in the state. He also has considerable interests in the media and controls News Live, the top regional channel and a newspaper.

Sonowal, who was made in-charge of Assam in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, was instrumental in ensuring that the party bagged seven out of the 14 seats in the state. He was himself elected from Dibrugarh, and went on to become the Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports.

The good show in the Lok Sabha polls was an important entry point for the saffron party, which fought the Assembly elections riding not just on anti-incumbency against Gogoi's three-term government, but also on the important plank of protecting the Assamese identity from the influx of 'illegal immigrants'. Both Sonowal and Sarma centred their campaign around this issue.

Notable absentee

Interestingly, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, the former BJP state unit president, who was instrumental in bringing Sarma to join the BJP, did not attend the oath-taking ceremony. He is said to be miffed at the way he has not been given a portfolio in the Cabinet.

Bhattacharya won the East Guwahati constituency with the second highest margin in Assam. Sources close to him say that he will come to Delhi soon to air his grievances to the Central leadership.

"The way Bhattacharya has been ignored shows how much the PM is relying on Sonowal," the source says. "Sonowal sees Bhattacharya as a threat."

Show of strength

The oath-taking ceremony itself was a star-studded event, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all the CMs of NDA-ruled states in attendance.

It was a show of strength, perhaps trying to showcase that the party had a pan-Indian presence, and also to lend credence to its earlier assertion that the country was headed towards a Congress-Mukt Bharat.

BJP national president Amit Shah described the Assam win as the 'happiest moment' in his address at the grand oath-taking ceremony, which had everyone including the PM and all Chief Ministers of NDA ruled states in attendance.

Assam is the gateway to other states in the Northeast, where BJP has a negligible presence. With this win, the BJP hopes to make inroads into other states, most of which are ruled by the Congress. However, shoring up its organisational presence is going to be a big challenge.

A cursory look at the new state cabinet shows that most ministers have a non-BJP background. Even Sonowal was formerly with the Asom Gana Parishad.

The remaining six ministers from the BJP have varied backgrounds. Chandra Mohan Patowari, who was formerly, with the AGP, joined the BJP in 2014, while Naba Kumar Doley left the AGP in 2015. Pallab Lochan Das, another member of the Cabinet, was among the MLAs who defected from the Congress with Sarma.

With inputs from Panini Anand.