“Inform your mother, I will be the Chief Minister one day”, new Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, then a student of Cotton College, had told his future wife Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, in their university days.
After the swearing-in-ceremony at the famous Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra, she said that this was the answer the then 22-year-old Sarma gave her when she asked what should she tell her mother about his future career.
“When we first met, he was 22 and I was 17,” a smiling Riniki Bhuyan Sarma said.
They had married on June 7, 2001 when he became the member of the Assam Assembly for the first time.
“He was a Minister for several years, but when I was watching him taking the oath as Chief Minister today (Monday), I could not believe it,” she told the media.
She said that even last night, he told her that he is the Chief Minister-designate and “I asked him ‘kun’ (who), he replied ‘moi’ (I am)”.
“It is always Himanta for me and our children. I cannot relate to him as the CM. It would take some time for me to feel that he is the executive head of a state,” said Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, a media entrepreneur.
“A person in public life has to face many odds and challenges but I am confident that he would solve the issues and tasks as he is a person who thinks positively both with his heart and mind besides both sides of the issues,” the CM’s wife said.
The couple have two children – Nandil and Sukanya. Nandil did his schooling at the Doon School and passed his Class 12 in 2020 and Sukanya passed the secondary exam in the same year.
