Assam govt formation: Himanta Biswa Sarma resigns, says next CM to be decided soon; swearing-in ceremony on...
Assam govt formation: Himanta Sarma resigned along with his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday, paving the way for the formation of a new government led by the BJP.
Days after winning the Assam Assembly Elections for the third time, Himanta Biswa Sarma resigned as the Chief Minister of the state. He said the legislative party will decide the next chief minister, and the swearing-in ceremony is likley to be held after May 11.
Assam Election Results 2026: The BJP-led NDA secured a hat-trick in the recently concluded state elections. The coalition bagged 102 seats in the 126-member assembly. The ruling BJP won 82 seats, and its allies Bodoland People's Front (BPF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) pocketed 10 seats each.
The Congress won 15 seats. All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) won one seat, and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) won two seats. In a setback for Congress, party leader Gaurav Gogoi lost the Jorhat constituency to BJP's Hitendra Nath Goswami by a margin of 23,182 votes.
The elections were held in a single phase on 9 April, and the results were declared on May 4.
Here's all the latest you need to know about the Assam government formation:
Himanta Biswa Sarma resigns
Himanta Sarma resigned along with his cabinet colleagues on Wednesday, paving the way for the formation of a new government led by the BJP.
The governor accepted the resignation and requested Sarma to continue as the caretaker CM till the new government assumes office.
"Following the formal notification of the results of #AssamElections2026 and to enable the formation of the new government, Dr Himanta Biswa tendered his resignation as Chief Minister along with that of the council of Ministers to Hon'ble Governor Shri @Laxmanacharya54 today at Lok Bhawan," the Chief Minister's Office said in a post on X.
After resigning as the CM, Biswa Sarma also told reporters, "I submitted my resignation letter as the Chief Minister of Assam to the Governor of Assam, and simultaneously, I requested him to dissolve the current Assam assembly."
"The Governor of Assam has accepted my resignation letter and suggestion of dissolving the current Assam assembly, and he directed the Assam ministry to continue as the caretaker council of ministers till the formation of a new government. I think that the new government will be formed soon. During this time, we will work as a caretaker government," Biswa Sarma said.
Who'll be the next CM?
Whether Himanta Biswa Sarma continues to be the chief minister of Assam or the BJP will choose a new leader the CM is yet to be seen. Sarma first became the CM of Assam in 2021, succeeding Sarbananda Sonowal, the state's first BJP chief minister.
On Assam's next CM, Himanta Biswa Sarma said Union minister JP Nadda and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini have been appointed as central observers by BJP National President Nitin Nabin.
"Who will be the next CM and the leader will be decided by the legislative party. Following the legislative party meeting, we will come back to Lok Bhawan again and stake a claim to form a government," Sarma said.
On the wearing-in ceremony, he added, "There is an indication that oath-taking will be post May 11 because we have invited the Prime Minister to kindly grace the swearing-in ceremony of our government this time. We have invited the PM because we got a hat-trick with a century this time."