Sarbananda Sonowal to bag a berth in Modi's new cabinet expansion

India, July 7: Ahead of the much-awaited reshuffle of PM Modi’s cabinet which is going to take place today, the first time in his second term, former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is likely to be given a place.

The former Assam CM reached  New Delhi on Tuesday to attend the new cabinet expansion of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP government at the centre.

Here are all the details of his political profile:

SARBANANDA SONOWAL

Born in Muluk Gao in the Dibrugarh district of Assam on October 31st, 1962, Sarbananda Sonowal is an Indian politician based in Assam.

Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, 58, is currently serving as an MLA representing the Majuli Assembly Constituency in the Assam Legislative Assembly. He was the 14th Chief Minister of Assam and the first from the Bharatiya Janata Party, serving from 2016 to 2021.

He has been in politics for more than a decade, beginning in 1992.

He was the President of AASU – All Assam Students’ Union – from 1992 to 1999.

Sonowal was elected as a legislator from Assam’s Moran assembly constituency in 2001 as a member of the Asom Gana Parishad party.

In the 2004 Assam state elections, he was elected from the Dibrugarh assembly constituency. However, he was defeated from the same seat in the election that took place five years later, in 2009.

After joining the BJP, he was chosen president of the state BJP in 2012.

Two years later, in the 16th Lok Sabha elections of 2014, he was not only elected as an MP from the Lakhimpur seat but also appointed as the Union Minister of State with independent charge with the Government of India.


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He served as the Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Skill Development from May 26th until November 9th, 2014.

Sonowal served as the Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs from May 26, 2014, until May 23, 2016, before becoming the BJP’s first Chief Minister of Assam in 2016.

In Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal is a household name and one of the state’s most prominent leaders.

Majuli is classified as a rural district. Sarbananda Sonowal defeated Congress candidate Rajib Lochan Pegu in the 2016 assembly elections by a margin of 18,923 votes, garnering 19.36 per cent of total votes cast in the constituency and 51 per cent of votes cast among all candidates.

In his re-election bid for a second term in 2021, Sonowal defeated Pegu by a margin of 43192 votes, garnering 68 per cent of the vote.