Sarbananda Sonowal is the second Chief Minister in India to have been denied the post after their party returned to power for the second term. 

He has been replaced by his former health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as the next Chief Minister of Assam.

Prior to him, it was Sushil Kumar Shinde of the Congress who could not keep the Chief Minister's post despite the party-led alliance retain power in Maharashtra in 2004.

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Sharad Pawar had struck an alliance after the 1999 assembly elections and retained power for three terms till 2014 when the two parties decided to part ways and contest the polls alone. 

However, the decision proved wrong as the BJP won the elections and assumed power in the state. The Shiv Sena, which had also fought the polls separately, later again joined hands with the BJP. 

The alliance finally broke after the 2019 assembly elections after the BJP refused to concede the Chief Minister's post to the Shiv Sena. 

Due to a smart political move by Pawar, the Shiv Sena later joined hands with the NCP and the Congress and is leading a coalition (known as Maha Vikas Aghadi) government since then with its supremo Uddhav Thackeray as the Chief Minister. 

In 2004, Shinde was named as Governor of united Andhra Pradesh and remained on the post till 2006 when he was appointed as the Union Power Minister. 

From 2012 to 2014, he was the Union Home Minister and also the Leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, replacing Pranab Mukherjee who had been elected as the President of India. 

Coming to Sonowal, he had led the BJP to victory in the just-concluded assembly elections in Assam despite the party facing huge backlash over the issues of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Media reports claimed that Sarma had told the BJP leadership that 50 of the NDA's 75 legislators are supporting him and that it was he who had ensured the return of the alliance and that if he is not made the Chief Minister he would leave the party.