Sarbananda Sonowal (IPA: xɔɹbanɔndɔ xʊnʊwal; born 31 October 1962) is an Indian politician who has served as Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways since 2021.

Sonowal earlier served as the Assam state unit President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2012 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2016.

On 19 May 2016, Sarbananda Sonowal won the Assembly Election from Majuli Constituency, and he became Chief Minister of Assam, the first CM of the state from Bharatiya Janata Party.

Faced with the problem of massive migration from Bangladesh into Assam, the government tried to put up legislation in place to detect and deport foreign nationals.

The IMDT Act is an instrument passed by Indian Parliament to detect illegal immigrants (from Bangladesh) and expel them from Assam.

Under the Act, the onus of proving the citizenship of a suspected illegal alien rests on the complainant, often the police.

On the other hand, according to the provisions of the Foreigners Act, the onus lies with the person suspected to be an alien.

By its judgement dated 12 July 2005, the court struck down the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, as unconstitutional and termed Bangladeshi infiltration an "external aggression" and directed that "the Bangladesh nationals who have illegally crossed the border and have trespassed into Assam or are living in other parts of the country have no legal right of any kind to remain in India and they are liable to be deported.