Sarbananda Sonowal (Assamese: সৰ্বানন্দ সোণোৱাল / IPA: xɔɹbanɔndɔ xʊnʊwal; born 31 October 1962)[3] is an Indian politician from Assam[4] who is the current Cabinet Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways and Cabinet Minister of AYUSH in the Government of India.[5] He is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of India's Parliament) from Assam[6] and also a member of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs.[7] He is a former Chief Minister of Assam and a former Member of the Legislative Assembly (India) in Assam Legislative Assembly. Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again in 2015 to 2016.[8] 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 Chief Minister of Assam after the 2016 Assam Legislative Assembly election and he became the first Chief Minister of Assam from Bharatiya Janata Party.[9][10] During the cabinet reshuffle on 7 July 2021, he was inducted Cabinet minister in the 2nd Modi Cabinet.[11]
Sarbananda Sonowal was born on 31 October 1962 to an Assamese Hindu 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.
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 Asom Gana Parishad (AGP). In 2001, he was elected as the MLA from Moran constituency of Assam. In 2004, he became a Lok Sabha member representing the Dibrugarh constituency.[13] He lost Lok Sabha election from Dibrugarh in 2009. He joined Bharatiya Janata Party (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.
The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee administering the oath as Minister of State (Independent Charge) to Shri Sarbananda Sonowal, at a Swearing-in Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on May 26, 2014 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 Constituency, and he became Chief Minister of Assam, the first CM of the state from Bharatiya Janata Party. 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 when cabinet overhaul happened.