Sarbananda Sonowal ( Assamese: সৰ্বানন্দ সোণোৱাল / IPA: xɔɹbanɔndɔ xʊnʊwal; born 31 October 1962) is an Indian politician from

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

who is the current Cabinet Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Cabinet Minister of AYUSH in the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, ...

. He is a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

in the

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

(Upper House of India's Parliament) from

and also a member of the

Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs of the Central Government of India deals with problems related to Centre-State relations, considers economic and political issues that require a broader perspective, and handles foreign affairs that do ...

. He is a former

Chief Minister of Assam The chief minister of Assam, an Indian state, is the head of the Government of Assam. As per the Constitution of India, the governor is the state's ''de jure'' head, but ''de facto'' executive authority rests with the chief minister. Following ...

and a former

Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) A Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district (constituency) to the legislature of State government in the Indian system of government. From each constituency, the people elect o ...

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present Western Assam region. The Legislative Assembly comprises 126 Me ...

. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again in 2015 to 2016. He has also served as the Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of India, from 2014 to 2016. He was chosen to be the

after the

2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election The Assam Legislative Assembly Election of 2016 was held in two phases, on 4 and 11 April 2016, to elect members of the 126 constituencies in Assam, a state in North-eastern India. The overall voter turnout was 84.72%, which set a new record for ...

and he became the first

from

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

. During the cabinet reshuffle on 7 July 2021, he was inducted Cabinet minister in the 2nd Modi Cabinet.

Early life and education

Sarbananda Sonowal was born on 31 October 1962 to an Assamese

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

family in Muluk Gaon located in the Dibrugarh district of Assam to Jibeswar Sonowal ''(father)'' and Dineswari Sonowal ''(mother)''. Sonowal did his schooling at Don Bosco High School, Dibrugarh. He completed his B.A.(Hons) in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

from Dibrugarh Hanumanbax Surajmall Kanoi College under

Dibrugarh University Dibrugarh University is a collegiate public state university in the Indian state of Assam. It is located at Dibrugarh, Assam, India. It was set up in 1965 under the provisions of the Dibrugarh University Act, 1965 enacted by the Assam Legislat ...

and his LLB form

and B.C.J from

Gauhati University Gauhati University, also known as GU, is a Collegiate university, collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assem ...

Political career

Sarbananda Sonowal was the President of Assam's oldest student body, the

All Assam Students Union All Assam Students' Union or AASU is a Assamese nationalist students' organisation in Assam, India. It is best known for leading the six-year Assam Movement against Bengalis of both Indian and Bangladeshi origin living in Assam. The leadership, ...

(AASU) from 1992 to 1999. After that, he became a member of the

Asom Gana Parishad Asom Gana Parishad (translation: ''Assam People's Council'', AGP) is a state political party in Assam, India. The AGP was formed after the historic Assam Accord of 1985 and formally launched at the Golaghat Convention held from 13–14 Octobe ...

(AGP). In 2001, he was elected as the MLA from Moran constituency of

. In 2004, he became a Lok Sabha member representing the

Dibrugarh Dibrugarh (pron: ˌdɪbru:ˈgɑ:) is an industrial city in Upper Assam with sprawling tea gardens. It is located 435 kms East from the state capital of Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of Dibrugarh district in the state of Assam i ...

constituency. He lost Lok Sabha election from Dibrugarh in 2009. He joined

(BJP) in 2011. He was appointed president of BJP's Assam Unit in 2012 and is also a member of the party's National Executive. In the 2014 general election for Lok Sabha he was appointed to head Assam State's Lok Sabha Elections by BJP, and in the same year he was also elected as

, 16th Lok Sabha, from Lakhimpur Constituency. He was then appointed as Union Minister of State-Independent Charge, of the Government of India under the Modi Government at the center. He was selected as the CM candidate of BJP for the 2016 Assam Assembly Election. On 19 May 2016, Sarbananda Sonowal won the Assembly Election from

Majuli Mājuli or Majuli () is a river island in the Brahmaputra River, Assam and in 2016 it became the first island to be made a district in India. It had an area of at the beginning of the 20th century, but having lost significantly to erosion it c ...

Constituency, and he became Chief Minister of Assam, the first CM of the state from

. In 2021 he was re-elected to Assam Vidhan Sabha from Majuli. He resigned as Chief Minister and proposed Himanta Biswa Sarma's name as his successor. He became Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Minister of AYUSH in

Second Modi ministry The Second Ministry of Narendra Modi is the Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2019 general election which was held in seven phases in 2019. The results of the election were announ ...

when cabinet overhaul happened.

Personal life

Sarbananda Sonowal resigned from all executive posts within AGP and left the party, due to dissatisfaction with and amongst the senior leadership of the party who were trying to forge an alliance with a party that was against the scrapping of the controversial IMDT Act. On 8 February 2011, Sonowal joined

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

in the presence of the then BJP National President

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra who is the current Minister for Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways cu ...

and senior leaders like

Varun Gandhi Varun Gandhi (born 13 March 1980) is an Indian author, politician, and a third-term member of Parliament for Lok Sabha from the Pilibhit constituency. He is also member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and was inducted into Rajnath Singh's team ...

, Vijay Goel, Bijoya Chakravarty and state BJP president Ranjit Dutta. He was immediately appointed as a member of the BJP National Executive and later on the State Spokesperson of the BJP unit, prior to his current assignment to head the state as the new president. On 28 January 2016, BJP Parliamentary Board announced Sarbananda Sonowal as BJP Chief Ministerial candidate of Assam. He is not married.

Positions held

*2001-2004: Elected as MLA, Assam Legislative Assembly from Moran Constituency *2004: Elected as Member of Parliament, 14th Lok Sabha from Dibrugarh Constituency *2005: Appointed Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Home Affairs *2006: Appointed Member, Consultative Committee, Ministry of Commerce & Industry *2011: Appointed as National Executive Member of

*2011: Appointed as State Spokesperson and General Secretary for

*2012: Appointed as State President for

*2014: Appointed to head State's

16th Lok Sabha Members of the 16th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2014 Indian general election. The elections were conducted in 9 phases from 7 April 2014 to 12 May 2014 by the Election Commission of India. The results of the election were declared on 16 M ...

Elections

*2014: Elected as Member of Parliament,

from Lakhimpur Constituency *2014: Appointed as Union Minister of State-Independent Charge, Republic of India *2016: Declared as BJP Chief minister candidate for 2016 Assam assembly elections. * 2016-2021: Member of Assam Legislative Assembly from Majuli Constituency * 2016–2021: 14th

* 2021–present: Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Minister of AYUSH in the

* 2021–present: Member of the

in the

* 2021–present: Member of Parliament,

Social and cultural activities

* President -

, 1992–1999 * Chairman - North East Students Organisation, 1996–2000

Arts & culture

GIFF Sarbananda Sonowal Chief Minister of Assam

The annual Guwahati International Film Festival was started during his tenure. It is organised by the State Government-owned Jyoti Chitraban (Film Studio) Society in association with the Dr. Bhupen Hazarika Regional Government Film and Television Institute. The first edition was held in Oct 2018. The second, in Oct-Nov 2019. The 3rd edition has been postponed owing to the present

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

to early 2021.

Role removing the IMDT Act

Faced with the problem of massive migration from

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

into

, the government tried to put up legislation in place to detect and deport foreign nationals. Eventually, the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983 (IMDT Act) came into being following the

Assam Accord The Assam Accord was a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) signed between representatives of the Government of India and the leaders of the Assam Movement. It was signed in the presence of the then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in New Delhi on 15 Au ...

signed between the

and the

(AASU) to end the decade-long anti-foreigner agitation. The IMDT Act is an instrument passed by

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

to detect illegal immigrants (from Bangladesh) and expel them from Assam. While the IMDT Act operates only in Assam, the

Foreigners Act (1946) The Foreigners Act, 1946 is an Act of the Imperial Legislative Assembly enacted to grant the certain powers to the Interim Government of India in matters of foreigners in India. The Act was enacted before India became independent. Provisions T ...

applies to the rest of the country. It is applicable to those Bangladeshi nationals who settled in Assam on or after 25 March 1971. Under the Act, the onus of proving the citizenship of a suspected illegal alien rests on the complainant, often the police. On the other hand, according to the provisions of the Foreigners Act, the onus lies with the person suspected to be an alien. Sonowal took the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration to the Supreme Court. By its judgement dated 12 July 2005, the court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, as unconstitutional and termed Bangladeshi infiltration an "external aggression" and directed that "the Bangladesh nationals who have illegally crossed the border and have trespassed into Assam or are living in other parts of the country have no legal right of any kind to remain in India and they are liable to be deported."

References

External links

Home Page on the Parliament of India's Website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sonowal, Sarbananda People from Dibrugarh district Living people 1961 births Assamese people Gauhati University alumni Dibrugarh University alumni India MPs 2004–2009 Asom Gana Parishad politicians Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Assam Lok Sabha members from Assam India MPs 2014–2019 Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports Union ministers of state of India with independent charge Assam MLAs 2001–2006 Assam MLAs 2016–2021 Chief Ministers of Assam Chief ministers from Bharatiya Janata Party Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Narendra Modi ministry Assam MLAs 2021–2026