Himanta Biswa Sarma expands Assam cabinet, strength rises to 17

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma expanded his cabinet with the induction of 12 legislators, including 11 BJP MLAs and one AGP member. The council of ministers now has 17 members and represents various regions and communities across the state

Guwahati: BJP MLAs Ranoj Pegu, Ashok Singhal, Biswajit Daimary and AGP’s Keshab Mahanta were among the 12 legislators who took oath as ministers on Friday as Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma expanded his cabinet, taking the strength of the council of ministers to 17.

Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya administered the oath of office and secrecy to the MLAs at a function held at the Jyoti-Bishnu Antarjatik Kala Mandir here.

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The chief minister, Union ministers Sarbananda Sonowal and Pabitra Margherita, Assam Assembly Speaker Ranjeet Kumar Dass, BJP state president Dilip Saikia and several NDA MLAs were present on the occasion.

Among the new faces in the cabinet are BJP’s Ashwini Ray Sarkar, Nandini Devi and Sushanta Borgohain.

AGP’s Mahanta, who was a minister in Himanta Biswa Sarma’s previous cabinet, was included in the new council of ministers.

BJP MLAs Bimal Borah, Jayant Mallabaruah, Kaushik Rai, Krishnendu Paul and Pijush Hazarika, who took the oath, had also served as ministers in the previous Himanta Biswa Sarma government.

Rai took the oath in Hindi, while all the others took it in Assamese.

The strength of the Assam cabinet now stands at 17, including the chief minister, with four other ministers having been sworn in on May 12.

The maximum strength of the state cabinet is 19 in the 126-member Assam Assembly.

The ministers sworn in earlier are AGP’s Atul Bora, BPF’s Charan Boro and BJP’s Ajanta Neog and Rameshwar Teli.

The new cabinet will have 13 BJP ministers, two from the AGP and one from the BPF.

Neog and Nilima Devi are the two women ministers in the cabinet, and their number remains unchanged from the previous cabinet.

The expanded ministry represents several ethnic communities and geographical regions.

There are two representatives, Kaushik Rai and Krishnendu Paul, from the Barak Valley, while BPF’s Boro and BJP’s Daimary belong to the Bodo community.

Besides, Pegu is from the Mising tribe, Ray Sarkar from the Koch Rajbongshi community and Borgohain from the Ahom community.

Borgohain, along with Borah, is from Upper Assam, Singhal from the northern part of the state, Pijush Hazarika from central Assam and Mallabaruah from Lower Assam.

Sarma was sworn in as chief minister along with four ministers on May 12.

The NDA won a record 102 seats in the 126-member Assembly, including 82 won by the BJP.

The BJP’s allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), won 10 seats each.