Sarbananda Sonowal (; born 31 October 1962) is an Indian politician who has served as Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2021. He also has been the Member of the Rajya Sabha representing Assam since 2021 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 ...

since 2021. He previously served as the 14th Chief Minister of Assam from 2016 to 2021 and as a member of

Assam Legislative Assembly The Assam Legislative Assembly is the unicameral Assam Legislature, legislature of the List of states and union territories of India, Indian state of Assam. It is housed in Dispur, the capital city of Assam, geographically situated in present L ...

for Majuli from 2016 to 2021 and for Moran from 2001 to 2004. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state unit President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016. He also served as the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs, Government of India, from 2014 to 2016 and the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Skill Development from 2014 to 2014 and the member of the Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur from 2014 to 2016 and from Dibrugarh from 2004 to 2009. He was also the member of the

Asom Gana Parishad Asom Gana Parishad (translation: ''Assam People's Council'', AGP) is a political party in the state of Assam, India. The AGP was formed following the historic Assam Accord of 1985 and formally launched at the Golaghat Convention held from 13 t ...

from 2001 to 2011.

Early life and education

Sarbananda Sonowal was born on 31 October 1962 to a Sonowal 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 from Dibrugarh Hanumanbax Surajmall Kanoi College under Dibrugarh University and his LLB form Dibrugarh University and B.C.J from

Gauhati University Gauhati University also known as GU, is a 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 Assembly and is the oldest un ...

Political career

Sarbananda Sonowal was the President of Assam's oldest student body, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999. After that, he became a member of the

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

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

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

Dibrugarh Dibrugarh () is a city in the Indian state of Assam, located 435 kms east of the state capital Dispur. It serves as the headquarters of the Dibrugarh district in Upper Assam. Dibrugarh also serves as the headquarters of the Sonowal Kach ...

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

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(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 Member of Parliament, 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 Majuli (also spelled Majoli) is the largest river island in Assam, a state in northeastern India. It is bordered by the Brahmaputra River to the South and East, the Subansiri River to the West, and an anabranch of the Brahmaputra River. The is ...

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 Modi ministry, also called Modi 2.0 was the Union Council of Ministers of India, Council of Ministers headed by Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi that was formed after the 2019 Indian general election, 2019 general election whi ...

when cabinet overhaul happened.

Joining BJP

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 in the presence of the then BJP National President

Nitin Gadkari Nitin Jairam Gadkari (; born 27 May 1957) is an Indian politician who serves as the 40th Minister of Road Transport & Highways in the Government of India since 2014. He is also the longest serving Minister for Road Transport & Highways, current ...

and senior leaders like Varun Gandhi, 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.

Personal life

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 National Executive Member of

*2011: Appointed State Spokesperson and General Secretary for

*2012: Appointed State President for

*2014: Appointed to head State's 16th Lok Sabha Elections

*2014: Elected as Member of Parliament, 16th Lok Sabha from Lakhimpur Constituency *2014: Appointed Union Minister of State-Independent Charge,

Republic of India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area; the most populous country since 2023; and, since its independence in 1947, the world's most populous democracy. Bounded by ...

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

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

* 2021–present: Member of the

in the

* 2021–2024: Member of Parliament,

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

* 2024- Present: Member of Parliament, Dibrugarh Lok Sabha constituency

Social and cultural activities

* President - All Assam Students Union, 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 October 2018, the second in October-November 2019. The 3rd edition has been postponed owing to the present

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

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 List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

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 signed between the

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

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India (ISO: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Government of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the People). The President o ...

to detect illegal immigrants (from Bangladesh) and expel them from Assam. While the IMDT Act operates only in Assam, the Foreigners Act (1946) 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 In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

. 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 India MPs 2024–2029