When news trickled in of Assam’s former chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal getting accommodated in the Union Cabinet in the rejig on Wednesday, not many were surprised. After all, the speculation of his move to Delhi Darbar was rife since he was denied a second term as chief minister.
Last month, while talking to reporters, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said Sonowal will be given new responsibility, taking into consideration his past experience in Centre and the state.
Sonowal was the president of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999. He had also led the North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex body of student organisations in the Northeast, between 1996 and 2000.
His sustained struggles against illegal immigrants had earned him the title of ‘Jatir Nayak’ (hero of the community). In 2005, the Supreme Court scrapped the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, where Sonowal was the petitioner. He joined the BJP in 2011, quitting the Asom Gana Parishad.
Before becoming Assam chief minister, Sonowal was Union Minister of State for Youth Affairs and sports from 2014-16.
Sonowal’s tenure as chief minister was fraught with one of the worst crises in 2019 and early 2020 when Assam witnessed violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, leading to the death of five people. The CAA aims to make minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.
The induction of Sonowal in Team Modi has also raised the hopes of the Congress in Majuli, the riverine constituency represented by the former CM. Sonowal being given a place in the new cabinet, a by-election from Majuli would be imminent.
Congress sources were quoted as saying by Times of India that despite facing humiliating defeats against Sonowal in the last two assembly elections, former minister in the Tarun Gogoi cabinet and the senior-most leader of the party in Majuli, Rajib Lochan Pegu, is going to be the likely candidate in case there is a by-election.
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