Who Will Be Assam BJP's Next Chief Ministerial Face?

New Delhi: On March 6, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from poll-bound Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, uploaded a music video on his Twitter handle. The song centred the party’s election campaign around Sarma.

The poll song in Assamese says, “Aahise aahise Himanta aahise aaxa re botora loi (Here comes Himanta bringing the news of hope)."

While prodding the kokaideu (the elder brothers) to come out of their homes to join Sarma in his campaign to help return the BJP to power in the northeastern state, the song also makes use of a term used for him by his critics in the state – mama (maternal uncle). By now, it is pretty common to find people casually calling Sarma 'mama'. The YouTube title of the poll song refers to Himanta as “super Mama”.

Closely watching the clips used in the party’s song, however, gives a glimpse into how the BJP – even while riding a considerable wave against the Assamese voters’ anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act sentiments in the coming polls – is also subtly trying to replug its 2016 promise to the majority community to safeguard their jati mati bheti – or their identity against ‘Bangladeshis’.

Having supported the cause of undocumented non-Muslim Bangladeshis to settle down permanently in Assam and elsewhere through the CAA, and thereby violating the primary clause of the Assam Accord brought in by the Centre to settle the state’s ‘foreigners’ issue, the Hindu rightwing party naturally can’t openly talk about protecting the ‘identity’ of the community anymore.

What it is doing, though, is using the term xonoskriti (culture) to carefully try and remind the Assamese voters of who their perceived political ‘enemy’ is. Sarma has gone on record terming the state’s Muslims of East Bengali origin as the ‘enemy’ of the Assamese people and the perceived usurpers of Assamese culture.

In other words, by using the term xonoskriti in his poll song, Sarma is cleverly trying to communalise the assembly polls once more – the tried and tested formula for the BJP not just in Assam but elsewhere too. Its nationwide election template has so far been to polarise voters on communal lines, while also playing with voter sentiments on ‘nationalism’.

True to the set template, on March 8, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s national poll mascot, took to Twitter to celebrate an important marker of Assamese xonoskriti – the red and white towel, the gamusa.

Sharing the screenshot of a gamusa he claimed to have bought online, Modi tweeted, “You have seen me wear the Gamusa very often. It is extremely comfortable. Today, I bought a Gamusa made by various self-help groups of Kaktipapung Development Block.”

You have seen me wear the Gamusa very often. It is extremely comfortable. Today, I bought a Gamusa made by various self-help groups of Kakatipapung Development Block. #NariShakti https://t.co/jvHk5YFJof pic.twitter.com/8exa9oli8Z

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 8, 2021

Through that tweet, Modi not only tried to circuitously cater to the Assamese xononskriti but also to reach out to Assamese women voters, an important component of the BJP's voter base in the 2016 polls.

On March 1, Modi donned an Assamese gamusa while getting vaccinated against COVID-19. All the BJP leaders, including Jay Panda, the national in-charge of the state, highlighted this on social media.

Immense pride for all in Assam at PM @narendramodi Ji's focus the northeast (40+ visits since taking office!) & especially on Assam's development, security, heritage, culture. The common man's PM set another example today, getting vaccinated as per schedule, no jumping queue 🙏🙏 pic.twitter.com/5ZgvQ639pU

— Baijayant Jay Panda (@PandaJay) March 1, 2021

The BJP’s other important component from its election toolkit – the ‘nationalism’ card – had already been played by Modi at a rally in Dhekiajuli area of Sonitpur district on February 7. In his public speech, aimed at tea garden workers – a voter base the BJP is desperately depending on to return to power – he made a veiled reference to the 'toolkit' shared by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, and spoke of some “people who are conspiring to defame India” and “stooping so low that they have not spared even Indian tea.”

Modi reportedly asked, “Will you accept this attack? Will you accept those who are involved in this attack? Will you accept those who are praising these attackers? …my tea garden workers will win this fight.”

Though on social media, Modi was mocked at by the anti-CAA driven Assamese twitterati for ‘stooping so low’ only to pocket votes, sources within the tea tribe have claimed to this correspondent that the message has already been taken forward to the tea garden workers, who are mostly unlettered, by the RSS and BJP workers on the ground. The aim, the sources highlighted, was clear – make watertight the tea garden voter base of the party in upper Assam.

Also read: With Polls Imminent in Assam and Bengal, BJP Is Now Dragging Its Feet on the CAA

Already, a number of schemes have been announced to benefit the community including direct transfer of funds to their Jan Dhan accounts. Upper Assam will vote in the first of the three phases – on March 27 – and the tea tribe will play a decisive role in several seats. The community will play a role in some seats in the Barak Valley too, which will vote on April 1.

Aside from the message of the BJP projecting itself as the ‘protector’ of Assamese community’s culture, what one derives from the poll song launched around Sarma is a question that has gripped the minds of both voters and political observers of the state since the BJP’s first candidate list on March 5 featured him from his Jalukbari constituency.

The common question is: Is Sarma the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2021 polls, and not the sitting chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal?

The question has become important because in the run-up to the 2021 polls, Sarma had told the local media that he would stay away from contesting the elections. For over a year now, he had been sending signals to the Central leadership to either hand him the top post in the state or bring him into the Modi cabinet in Delhi. In August 2020, he had, however, categorically told this correspondent that he would remain in the state till the 2021 elections. “I am very happy here in Assam,” he said.

The campaign song highlighting Sarma – coming just a day after the announcement of his candidature – stands in contrast to the spirit of the party’s election campaign in the 2016 elections. Five years ago, the message sent to the voters of Assam about who would be the state chief minister if the BJP were to unseat the Congress was very clear. Starting from Modi, not only had all senior national party leaders projected Sonowal as the chief minister, but the BJP poll anthem too was hinged on him. Sung by popular Assamese singer Zubeen Garg, it had the words "xokolure anando Sarbananda (Sarbananda brings joy to all)". That song was played on loop at all BJP rallies, including those addressed by Modi.

Come 2021 polls, neither have voters seen any poll song around Sonowal so far, nor have they been given a clear signal from the party leadership on the matter. Rather, the message that has gone out is, it could be either of the two.

A day after Sarma promoted his poll song on social media, state BJP chief Ranjit Dass told NDTV that the chief ministerial candidate would be decided only after May 2. The news report, quoting party sources, also said, “Mr Sarma (Himanta) was not keen to contest the election, but the party decided that Mr Sonowal would not be projected as the chief ministerial candidate and the BJP would fight the election under the joint leadership of Mr Sonowal and Mr Sarma.”

So, what has changed for the central leadership to decide to fight the election under the ‘joint leadership’ of Sonowal and Sarma? A senior news anchor of an Assamese channel, requesting anonymity, told The Wire, “Some message must have been put across to Himanta from Delhi for him by now to assert himself as the face of the elections too, thus triggering speculations in many among us about him being the possible next chief minister. That Sonowal, on February 25 prodded even the bhokots (Vaishnava monks), at the Batodroba Satra in Hindi toraise their hands and say Amit Shah zindabad only showed his desperation to please the national leader. It is clear that Shah is the primary decision maker even though J P Nadda is the party’s national president. Till now, we have seen Sonowal praising Modi in public speeches and social media posts much more than Shah.”

On March 8, Sarma launched the Assamese translation – done by him – of the book Amit Shah and the March of the BJP in Guwahati. Sonowal made a speech celebrating Shah, giving him credit for making the BJP “the largest party in the world”.

On being asked about the possibility of Sarma becoming the next chief minister, a BJP national leader asked this correspondent, “What is wrong if Himanta becomes the next CM? He deserves it.”

Also read: BJP’s Himanta Biswa, Media Misinterpret 'Aziz Khan Zindabad' as ‘Pakistan Zindabad’

It is now an open secret in the state’s journalist circles that Sarma had a lot of say in the party’s candidate list. The list so far reflects several names seen closer to him than Sonowal.

So far, the separation of responsibilities between Sonowal and Sarma clearly represented two core areas of interest for the party in the state – jatiotabadi (regionalism) and Hindutva. While Sonowal, along with colleagues from the ally Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), would embody the BJP’s jatiotabadi sentiment, Sarma is the card holder of the Hindutva ideology. He has made no bones about such a public stand through his communal speeches and comments to local media.

গুৰুজনাৰ জন্মস্থানৰ পৰা সৰ্বানন্দই ভক্তি ভাৱেৰে ভকত বৈষ্ণৱক কবলৈ কৈছে অমিত শ্বাহ জিন্দাবাদ।

লাজ চৰম বেছি খালে বুলি কৈছে আমাৰ বকৰা দাইটিতে। pic.twitter.com/Z9g9Zlmmst

— বড়া (@BorahBedabrata) February 25, 2021

However, with a new party, Assam Jatiya Parishad, now threatening to steal the show from the AGP and Sonowal, as the ‘regional’ face in state politics in the coming polls, Sarma, an Assamese Brahmin, seems to be upping the game by projecting himself as the legitimate leader of the RSS-backed party in the state. A pro-Sonowal BJP leader said, “If Sonowal is rejected for Sarma, Assam will burn. He is a tribal leader. I don’t think BJP leadership will commit such a mistake.”

On being asked about the party’s poll song only around Sarma, a top party hand overseeing the campaign on social media in Assam told The Wire, “Don’t read too much into it. A poll song around Sarma has come, so will there be one on Sonowal soon. The party is not overtly projecting Sonowal as the next chief minister simply because they don’t do so in any state where there is a sitting chief minister.”

Meanwhile, responding to local reporters' question in Guwahati on March 8 following the release of the poll song as to who would be the next chief minister of the BJP in Assam, Sarma replied, “It is the prerogative of the parliamentary party to announce a candidate (the chief minister). It can be done tomorrow, day after tomorrow or post-election. I think it is better to wait patiently till New Delhi makes an announcement.”

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.