Chandra Mohan Patowary

Chandra Mohan Patowary (born 2 October 1955) is an Indian politician from Assam who has been serving as the Minister of Environment and Forests, Act East Policy Affairs, Welfare of Minorities in the cabinet of Himanta Biswa Sarma since 2021. He has been elected to the Assam Legislative Assembly six times from the Dharmapur constituency. He also served as a cabinet minister between 1996 and 2001 and from 2016 and 2021 and as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly from 2006 to 2011. He was the health minister of Assam from 1985 to 1990 and agriculture minister from 1996 to 2001. He was the president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) during 2008–2011. He resigned owning responsibility for the party's poor performance in the 2011 Assam Legislative Assembly elections. In 2014, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of then BJP National President Rajnath Singh and State President of BJP Assam Pradesh Sarbananda Sonowal.