PM to attend Sonowal's swearing-in gala on May 24

NEW DELHI: The BJP is a planning a show of strength for the swearing-in ceremony of Sarbananda Sonowal as Assam CM, who will lead the party's first elected government in a Northeaster n state. The gala function in Guwahati i s scheduled for May 24.
The party considers the Assam victory as its first firm footing in the Northeast, a region that has mostly been out of the party's reach.

The Guwahati show is tipped to be similar to the one that the party held when B S Yeddyurappa was sworn in as Karnataka's first BJP CM in 2007. His government was supported by H D Deve Gowda's JDS, but failed to complete its full tenure as the allies pulled out midway .

But the Bengaluru show was BJP's first show of strength in the south India, where the party still has a long way to go to make gains beyond Karnataka.

Both in Assam and Karnataka RSS has worked hard and their presence was considerable, yet it took years for the BJP to get into the mainstream of politics. The difference between the first BJP governments in the two states is that the southern success came when BJP was in the Opposition at the Centre.

Apart from PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, most top party functionaries and ministers from the Centre will be present in Guwahati on Tuesday . The party's NDA partners will also participate.