Ahead of Assam polls, CM Sarma banks on loyal voter base

Nagaon: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has built a strong base of voters during his more than three-decade-long association with politics. These voters are continuing to align with him irrespective of his political affiliation or position.

Sarma's political debut was under former Congress chief minister Hiteswar Saikia while his public life was under former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. Mahanta was leading the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) which anchored the anti-foreigner movement in the state from 1979 to 1985, eventually leading to the inking of the Assam Accord.

From 2001 to 2012, Sarma was a trusted lieutenant of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi. In 2013, Sarma led the dissident camp in the Congress, pushing for a leadership change.


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However, with the Congress high command ignoring the dissidents, Sarma joined the BJP in 2015, emerging as a poster boy of Hindutva.

During his tenure as health and education minister in the erstwhile Congress government, Sarma was responsible for creating a large number of jobs in the state. About 100,000 teachers were regularised and around 40,000 people were absorbed in NRHM. Services like 108 and 102 were introduced, new medical colleges came up, generating a lot of goodwill from family members of those who benefited from these services.

Sarma also regularised teacher jobs while arranging medical facilities to the needy during the pandemic.

Assam faced violent protests in 2019 and early 2020 after the Parliament passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The Act makes minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. Five people were killed in the protests. BJP workers were targeted by the protesters, and the entire state was under curfew and bandhs. Sarma took to the streets and started public meetings to garner support in favour of CAA.

Sarma also piloted flagship schemes like ‘Orunodoi’ – a welfare scheme aimed at women where the state pays Rs 1,250 a month to each beneficiary. The scheme began in 2020 during the Covid period, giving Rs 830 per month to 1.8 million women. The coverage has since reached 4 million while the pay-out has been increased to Rs 1,250 a month. BJP, in its 2026 poll manifesto, promised that if voted back to power, it will increase the payout to Rs 3,000 and add more women to this direct benefit transfer scheme.

In the 2021 assembly polls, Sarma campaigned that the government will waive microfinance loans taken by women. Soon after returning to power, he introduced the Microfinance Incentive & Relief Scheme (AMFIRS), benefiting hundreds of women with the total loan amount estimated at around Rs 12,000 crore. This move helped add a large base of female voters to Sarma’s existing pool. In the last five years, the Assam government gave nearly 170,000 government jobs.

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Portraying himself as a young and energetic politician, Sarma has earned the sobriquet of ‘mame’ or uncle, often doing surprise midnight inspections of infrastructure projects.

Political observers say similar to seasoned politicians, Sarma has been able to create his own pool of voters, which has expanded over the years, and are expected to continue extending support to him.