Opinion | The Himanta Biswa Sarma Show: Forever No.2 To No.1

Updated: Apr 05, 2026 19:10 pm IST Published On Apr 05, 2026 19:06 pm IST Last Updated On Apr 05, 2026 19:10 pm IST

Published On Apr 05, 2026 19:06 pm IST

Last Updated On Apr 05, 2026 19:10 pm IST

Assam election 2026 is Himanta Biswa Sarma's litmus test. While he has been around in Assam politics, and very visibly so, since the 1990s, this is the election when he is the incumbent and the face. The last two BJP victories were also largely credited to him, but in 2016, he was a neo-convert to the BJP, which picked Sarbanand Sonowal as the Chief Minister after the party's first win, and fought the next election in 2021 under his leadership. Himanta was not on the ballot, so to say. He became the Chief Minister  after the victory. 

But this time he is. After a full 5-year-term, he is trying to deliver a hat-trick for the BJP, but more than that, he is trying to make a bigger political and personal point: that he is the winner, not just a backroom boy. The stakes are highest for Sarma in 2026 than ever.

The No.2 who always wanted to be No. 1

When former Assam Chief Minister and Congress veteran Hiteshwar Saikia was trying to bring young people to the party fold after the restive 1980s of the Assam Agitation, he found his man in Himanta Biswa Sarma. A young student activist in those days, Sarma, who had built a name for himself in campus politics by then, was associated with the influential All Assam Students Union.

Since joining the Congress in 1991 and quitting it in 2015, he remained the go-getter for both Saikia and later, Tarun Gogoi. Sarma........

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