Guwahati, May 24: Assam today got its first BJP chief minister in Sarbananda Sonowal, who not only promised a "foreigner and corruption-free" Assam but also asserted that whatever his government does will not "hurt" the people of the state.
Sonowal, the 14th chief minister of Assam, made the promise soon after the grand swearing-in of his government, attended by the who's who of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at the Khanapara playground here this afternoon.
A mammoth gathering witnessed the swearing-in which was held in the open instead of the Raj Bhavan so that the public could be part of what the BJP alliance has described as a "historic" occasion.
A number of Modi's ministerial colleagues - Rajnath Singh, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Nitin Gadkari, Suresh Prabhu, V.K. Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Mahesh Sharma, Kiren Rijiju, Kalraj Mishra, Babul Supriyo and Jitendra Singh - graced the occasion as did BJP patriarch L.K. Advani.
BJP president Amit Shah and the chief ministers of Gujarat (Anandiben Patel), Maharashtra (Devendra Fadnavis), Madhya Pradesh (Shivraj Chouhan), Rajasthan (Vasundhara Raje), Jharkhand (Raghubar Das), Goa (Laxmikant Parsekar), Andhra Pradesh (N. Chandrababu Naidu), Punjab (Parkash Singh Badal), Chhattisgarh (Raman Singh), Haryana (Manohar Lal Khattar), Arunachal Pradesh (Kalikho Pul), Nagaland (T.R. Zeliang) and Sikkim (Pawan Kumar Chamling) were present. Also in attendance were former chief ministers Tarun Gogoi and Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. The highlight of the function was the large presence of xatradhikars.
There was huge enthusiasm among the crowd as a BJP-led government was being formed in the state for the first time. The BJP-led coalition has ended the Congress' 15 years of rule, winning 86 seats in the 126-member Assembly.
"It's a great day for Assam. We have a government of our own. We hope it will fulfil all its pre-poll pledges," said Anuj Gogoi, who had come all the way from Sivasagar to attend the function.
Gautam Sharma of Mangaldoi said, "We are very happy. We have a lot of expectations from this new government. They have to protect jati (community), mati (land), bheti (house)," he said.
Given the expectations, Sonowal tried to strike the right chord with his first speech as chief minister.
"It's a historic moment and credit goes to the people of Assam. We will work towards ridding Assam of illegal migrants, corruption and pollution. The greater Assamese society, Assamese, Bengali, Marwari, Bihari, Nepali, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian, will work together for a developed Assam," he said. Thanking central BJP leaders Ram Madhav, Mahendra Singh and Ajay Jamwal for their efforts in ensuring the historic mandate, Sonowal signed off by asserting, "Whatever the new state government does will not hurt the people of the state."
He also tried to put behind the political bickering witnessed during electioneering when he wished a speedy recovery to Assam PCC president Anjan Dutta at the swearing-in ceremony. Dutta was today shifted to an ICU in a Delhi hospital. He is not keeping well since his return from South Africa on May 12.
Sonowal had earlier personally invited his predecessor, Tarun Gogoi, to the ceremony. Gogoi responded to his invitation by attending the function.
Before Sonowal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to the crowd by promising to be with Assam in its march towards development and lavished wholesome praise on the new chief minister. Modi began and ended his speech in Assamese, thanking the people of Assam for voting BJP to power and promising that Sonowal and his team will transform Assam as the crowd chanted "Modi, Modi".
"I want to congratulate the people of Assam, who have dreamt of development and given a chance to Sarbananda Sonowal and his team to serve. I am sure that Sonowal will leave no stone unturned for the development of Assam. A leader belonging to the tribal community, a leader dedicated to serving society will now be the CM of Assam," said Modi, adding that the Centre will extend all assistance to Assam and other northeastern states for their speedy development.
He said Assam is central to the Centre's Act East policy and can play an important role in boosting the country's economy. "India's development has to be all-round and inclusive. The eastern part of India should also progress at the same pace as other parts of the country," Modi said. "The Centre believes in cooperative federalism. We want to give the states maximum strength and enable them to progress. The Centre and the states must walk together for development," he added.
BJP national president Amit Shah said, "Assam's development and progress is our topmost priority and our BJP-led government in the state will leave no stone unturned to achieve our goal."
Team Sarba
Sonowal and his 10 ministers took the oath of office today. They include four cabinet ministers from the BJP (Himanta Biswa Sarma, Chandra Mohan Patowari, Ranjit Dutta and Parimal Suklabaidya), two each from alliance partners AGP (Atul Bora and Keshab Mahanta) and BPF (Pramila Rani Brahma and Rihon Daimari) and two ministers of state (independent charge) Pallab Lochan Das and Naba Doley.
Sonowal, Patowari and Doley were in the AGP before they switched over to the BJP. Induction of Doley in the ministry is significant because he represents the Mising community, which plays a decisive role in the North Bank and Upper Assam areas, including Majuli from where Sonowal was elected.
Sarma and Pallab Lochan Das were in the Congress before they joined the BJP while Ranjit Dutta, a three-time MLA, is a BJP old-timer. Sarma's inclusion was a mere formality given his track record as one of the performing ministers in the Tarun Gogoi government. He is expected to get finance, health and Guwahati development portfolios. Das, a second-time MLA, was included in the ministry as a representative of the tea tribe community, which plays an important role in over 40 seats.
Hectic lobbying is on for ministerial berths with the AGP and the BPF expected to get one more berth each.
East Guwahati MLA and former Assam BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharya was conspicuous by his absence at the function. Party sources said he was miffed at not being included in the ministry. Repeated attempts to contact him proved futile.
NE Alliance
The four states in the Northeast, which have NDA-friendly ruling dispensations, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim, formed the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) today with Himanta Biswa Sarma as its convener. A BJP source said the main objective of the alliance would be to achieve a "Congress mukt (free)" Northeast. The BJP's next targets are Manipur and Meghalaya which go to the polls in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
