Nothing is surprising in the fact that BJP is returning to power in the State. | 7 May 2021 5:15 AM GMT One important point to be noted here is that a ministry headed by HBS but without Sri Sonowal is a probable proposition, but a ministry headed by Sri Sonowal without HBS as a member is almost an impossible proposition Udayan Hazarika (The writer can be reached at udayanhazarika@hotmail.com) Nothing is surprising in the fact that BJP is returning to power in the State. The factual position is that the party had done its homework much before they were going to the poll. Not only the routine homework like mass publicity of its performances, grassroots contacts by strengthening its organizational structures and bringing national leaders, including the PM Modi to tell their success stories to the people, but also did additional homework by designing and implementing popular schemes involving financial assistance to millions of families investing huge of government funds. These schemes have created millions of beneficiaries in favour of the party who later returned the benefits by way of casting votes in favour of the party. The Government indeed had carefully designed its strategy and played the game from the front. The populist schemes targeting the voters were launched in 2019 and some were even launched in 2018 on a low scale but left it to be implemented fully in the election year. The motive behind this offensive design was not difficult to understand from which it can easily be concluded that the party will be back to power Ceteris Paribus (The Sentinel op-Ed- 19 March). Now the time has come to activate the first stage of the post-election – the process of selection of the leader. The media – especially the electronic media, appears to be quite active in this count and already some of them are presenting programmes in the form of opinions of common people, etc., about the future CM. The fact is that a question as to who will be the next CM should not have arisen especially when the ruling party has come back to power. But unfortunately, the question has arisen and this inevitably will lead one to believe that Shri Sonowal despite having a full term in the office has failed to establish himself as an undisputed leader of the party. Some sitting members of the ruling party earlier and even now have made open claims for CM's birth for HBS.