Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma emerges as BJP’s ‘poster boy’

The BJP’s most prominent face from the North East, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has emerged as the party's new poster boy for election campaigning, capturing eyeballs as its first star campaigner from the region is campaigning in Gujarat and Delhi. 

Be it the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, imposition of Uniform Civil Code (UCC), PFI ban, Ram Janmabhoomi temple issue, communal angle to the recent killing of a girl by her live-in partner, Himanta Biswa Sarma has left no stone unturned to push forward BJP's key agenda in poll-bound Gujarat where the saffron party has ruled for the last 27 years. 

However, Sarma has dismissed the title of 'star campaigner' stating he is "no star but just an ordinary 'karyakarta' (worker) of the party and Gujarat leaders also go to Assam during elections". 

Campaigning in Gujarat twice within a week, Sarma has focused his attack on his erstwhile party-the Congress which he left in 2015 to join the BJP, and particularly on Rahul Gandhi, who he alleged was more interested in feeding biscuits to his dog than in solving party's problems.

In each of his campaign, either in Gujarat or Delhi, he has attacked the Congress for following ''politics of appeasement'' for the benefit of a particular community and even went on to refer to Gandhi resembling Saddam Hussain due to the beard he has kept during the ongoing 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'. 

Political analyst Chandan Sarma of Dibrugarh University claimed that it is well-documented that Sarma has been behind the success of BJP in the North East and that his stature is increasing in the national arena, too, as he ''boldly articulates the core BJP agenda on various issues’’. 

BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pabitra Margherita asserted that the campaigning task recognises Himanta Biswa Sarma's ability "to connect with people’s pulse, his practical and viable commitments and its timely implementation which has been noticed not only in the region but also in the rest of the country". 

Besides, BJP encourages and empowers "new generation politicians and gives space to young leaders working for the nation’s development along with preserving ideological ethos," Margherita said.