‘Mama’ in the spotlight: Himanta Biswa Sarma emerges as Assam's most loved and loathed leader ahead of 2026 polls

GUWAHATI: A Congress rebel who engineered BJP’s northeast takeover little more than a decade ago is now Assam’s most controversial and yet the most loved and loathed leader. He is none other than first-time chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Once a state scarred by bandhs and insurgency, Assam under his stewardship has been rebranded as a budding semiconductor hub, even as he wages a relentless campaign against infiltrators from Bangladesh in the last five years.




Among Assam’s youth, Sarma is affectionately known as “mama” (maternal uncle figure) who blends authority with familiarity and carries a sense of closeness and trust. In essence, “mama” tag has become his political branding.

In the run-up to the 2026 assembly elections, Sarma (57) HAS again emerged as the central figure. Supporters see him as an indefatigable campaigner with relentless energy. Critics view him as a combative leader whose rhetoric frequently triggers controversy.



X’s most-followed CM (@himantabiswasarma), with 2.6 million followers, Himanta Biswa Sarma thrives on social media, fuelling debates over madrasa closures, evictions of Bangladesh-origin Muslim migrants. Detractors accuse him of communal politics, but mainstream indigenous majority Assamese people rally behind him as the protector of their identity, land and homeland.

Born in 1969, Sarma came of age during the six-year anti-foreigners’ movement (1979–85) as a member of the All Assam Students’ Union. After a failed debut in 1996, he has held the Jalukbari seat since 2001.

His dramatic exit from Congress in 2015 reshaped Assam’s political landscape, cementing his reputation as a master strategist — adept at building coalitions, managing defections, and keeping the BJP’s electoral machine humming. His orchestration of former Assam Congress president Bhupen Borah’s defection to BJP just weeks ago exemplifies his ruthless precision in exploiting opposition fault lines.

Sarma’s vision is ambitious — to put Assam among the country’s top five states. The state has shown fiscal improvement and steady growth, though it remains far from breaking into the top bracket. The Reserve Bank of India recently identified Assam as the country’s fastest-growing state economy over the past five years — a remarkable transformation for a region long seen as resource-dependent rather than industrially diversified. Between FY20 and FY25, Assam’s GSDP expanded by about 45%, outpacing the national average.

On the campaign trail, Sarma thrives in the thick of battle. His speeches mix populist urgency with promises of development, projecting continuity and stability to his base. Yet critics warn that his confrontational style risks deepening divides. Just weeks before the polls, the Gauhati high court issued a notice to him on Feb 26 over multiple PILs accusing him of “hate speech” and “communal comments” against minority communities.