Assam chooses Himanta over Sonowal as the new chief minister of the state: InsideNE opinion poll

GUWAHATI: More than half of Assam wants BJP strongman Himanta Biswa Sarma to be the next chief minister of Assam.

In response to a survey conducted by InsideNE, on who should be the next chief minister of Assam, on various social media platforms, majority of the voters who took the polls chose Sarma over Sarbananda Sonowal to lead the state.

In our Instagram survey, while 68 per cent chose Sarma, 32 per cent opted for Sonowal as the next chief minister of Assam.

In our Facebook survey, 58 per cent of our followers preferred Sarma as the next chief minister while 42 per cent voted for  Sonowal.

Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide victory in the recent assembly election, results of which were declared yesterday, it seems the party is not going to have an easy time deciding its chief minister nominee.

BJP national vice president and in-charge of Assam Jay Panda has repeatedly said that the party’s parliamentary board will take a decision in choosing the chief minister.

BJP party sources said prime minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah and BJP national president JP Nadda will take a call on who will be the chief minister.

The prime minister’s choice will, however, be said to determine the future of both Sonowal and Sarma.

The BJP-led alliance in Assam is all set to form the government for the second successive term winning 75 of the 126 seats.

The opposition Mahajot, comprising the Congress, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and five other parties, has won 51 seats.

Sonowal won from Majuli assembly constituency defeating Congress candidate Rajib Lochan Pegu by 43,192 votes.

Also Read: BJP-led National Democratic Alliance sweeps all four constituencies in Guwahati

Sonowal, who retained his seat for the second time, polled 71,436 votes, while Pegu got 28,244 votes.

On the other hand, Sarma won from the Jalukbari constituency for the fifth consecutive term with a margin of 1,01,911 votes.

While Sarma polled 1,30,762 votes, his nearest rival Romen Chandra Borthakur of Congress got 28,851 votes.

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