The 120-year-old Cotton University, previously Cotton College, in Guwahati has given Assam seven of the states 15 Chief Ministers, including Himanta Biswa Sarma, who on Monday was sworn-in as the 15th CM of the northeastern state. As the Education Minister in the previous government led by Sarbananda Sonowal, Sarma, who studied in the varsity from 1985 to 1992, took active initiative to turn Cotton College into a university in 2017 by approving the Cotton University Bill, 2017 in the state Assembly. Before 2017, Cotton College was under the Gauhati University.

Assam's first Chief Minister (1946-1950) and the architect of modern Assam, Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi, was a student of the then Cotton College. He was posthumously conferred with the Bharat Ratna in 1999. The five other students of Cotton University who went on to become Chief Minister of Assam include Mahendra Mohan Chowdhury (1970-1972), Sarat Chandra Sinha (1972-1978), Jogendra Nath Hazarika (Sept 1979-Dec 1979), Hiteswar Saikia (1983-1985 and 1991-1996) and Bhumidhar Barman (April 1996-May 1996).