Himanta Biswa Sarma hopeful about Assam's future under Modi regime

Former Assam Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who announced plans of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sometime this week, said on Monday, that he is hopeful about bringing Assam out of its current crisis under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

"We have met the national president of the BJP, Amit Shah, and expressed our desire to join the BJP and work under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi," Sarma told ANI here.

"He (Shah) was kind enough. He said yes you can join. So, accordingly we have decided to join either on 27th or 28th of this month," he added.

Revealing the reason for joining the BJP, Sarma said, "Our situation in the state is not good. It is drifting away, financial position is very bad, we have not been able to add a single mega watt of power in the past ten years and politically there is tremendous instability."

On Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, Sarma said, "The way Tarun Gogoi is running the government, for the next government, he will leave a totally empty coffer."

Last month, Sarma had resigned from the Gogoi cabinet, alleging that the latter had no concrete policy of strengthening the Congress party in Assam.