From a student leader to Assam’s chief minister to a union minister, Sarbananda Sonowal has carved a political niche for himself without any significant backing. The 59-year-old former chief minister of Assam on Wednesday was inducted into the Union cabinet.

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Sonowal, who was the president of All Assam Students’ Union(AASU) from 1992-99,  was fondly given the title of “Jatiya Nayak” for being the petitioner in the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983  case, which was struck down by the Supreme Court on July 12, 2005. His legal victory gave him a solid positioning in the state. He, however, was already a Lok Sabha MP from Dibrugarh from Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) – an offshoot of AASU – when the verdict came. His legal victory was celebrated by the Assamese society as the Act threatened to turn the majority population of locals into a minority due to the influx of Bangladeshi nationals.

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This celebration was halted by a failure for Sarbananda Sonowal when he lost the Lok Sabha election in 2009 from the Lakhimpur constituency to Ranee Narah of the Congress. It was during this time the regional parties had begun to lose their grounds and were looking for tie-ups with national parties to either hold on to their states or expand.

In 2011, Sonowal joined the BJP that gradually expanded its footprint across the country. Soon after, he was appointed to the party’s National Executive, followed by the posts of state spokesperson, state general secretary, and state party president. In 2014, PM Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party swept the Lok Sabha polls, with Assam adding 7 of 14 seats to the overall kitty.

Riding the Modi wave, Sonowal also regained the Lakhimpur Lok Sabha seat. In the subsequent assembly election in 2016, the BJP bagged 60 of the total 126 seats in the state and Sonowal became the chief minister and won the Majuli Assembly constituency. In the 2021 Assembly polls, he won from the same seat

However, he didn’t get a second stint as Assam’s CM. 

On Wednesday, he took oath as a minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revamped Cabinet.