Who is Pabitra Margherita? PM Modi’s surprise pick from Assam in MEA

Margherita was a cultural activist before joining politics in 2014.

On Tuesday (June 10) evening when Prime Minister Narendra Modi allocated the portfolios to 71-member NDA ministry, Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, Pabitra Margherita’s inclusion as the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs surprised many. S Jaishankar, who has retained the External Affairs Ministry, will be supported by two Ministers of State: Kirtivardhan Singh and Pabitra Margherita.

Given their ministerial experience in the previous NDA governments, Sarbananda Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju’s inclusion in Modi Cabinet 3.0 was almost a given. Sonowal and Margherita are from Assam while Rijiju is from Arunachal Pradesh.

The NDA had bagged 16 of the Northeast’s 25 parliamentary seats with the BJP alone accounting for 13 – nine in Assam and two each in Arunachal and Tripura. The party rules the three states.

Margherita: BJP’s surprise pick from Assam

Margherita was indeed a surprise pick. His original name is Pabitra Gogoi. He uses the name of native town – Margherita in upper Assam’s Tinsukia district – as his surname. Margherita was a cultural activist before joining politics in 2014.

He was elected as a Rajya Sabha member in 2022 and is also the political secretary to CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. According to observers, by inducting Margherita into the ministry, the BJP is pitting an Ahom against another Ahom – three-time Lok Sabha member Gaurav Gogoi who was elected from Jorhat this election. Jorhat, Dibrugarh and a portion of Kaziranga constituencies make up upper Assam and with large number of Ahom voters.

A possible counter to Congress’ growing clout in eastern Assam

He was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from Assam in 2022. According to reports, Margherita's induction into the Union Cabinet is aimed at countering Congress' perceived resurgence in eastern Assam. Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi last week secured a victory from the Jorhat seat, defeating BJP's Topon Kumar Gogoi by 1,44,393 votes.

Pabitra Margherita’s foray into politics

Pabitra ventured into politics with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Over several years, he served various roles, including that of the spokesperson for the Assam unit of the BJP and the political secretary to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. Besides this, he has also been the zila prabhari (district in-charge) and the head of the BJP's social media cell in Assam.

 Countering Congress and wooing Ahoms

PM’s decision to appoint Pabitra Margherita as a Minister of State is both strategic and reactionary. The saffron party did not anticipate Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi’s victory in the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency. The entire Assam BJP machinery, campaigned aggressively against Gaurav, the son of former state chief minister Tarun Gogoi, aiming to thwart his parliamentary bid.

The saffron party believed that the Ahom community, to which both Gaurav Gogoi and BJP candidate Topon Gogoi belonged, would support the incumbent BJP leader. However, Gaurav proved to be both smarter and more determined, with informed voters backing him thereby clinching the Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency.

Gaurav’s victory sent shockwaves through the BJP ranks and offered a glimmer of hope for the Congress to revive itself in the state. The outcome underlined that the Ahom vote could not be taken for granted, and neither This contest was more about individual personalities than intra-community allegiance.