Tarun Gogoi reshuffles Assam ministry, 11 cabinet ministers join

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi effected a major reshuffle in his three and half-year old ministry for the first time today introducing new 11 cabinet ministers and three ministers of state with independent charge. The oath of office and secrecy to the new entrants was administered by Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya at the Raj Bhaban here in the presence of Gogoi and other dignitaries.[caption id=“attachment_2026285” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. AFP[/caption] Bhumidhar Barman, Sarat Barkatoky, Ajanta Neog, Nazrul Islam, Rockybul Hussain, Chandan Kumar Sarkar, Khorsing Engti, Sukur Ali Ahmed, Ajit Singh, Basanta Das and Etuwa Munda took oath as cabinet ministers. Sumitra Patir, Girindra Mallick and Bismita Gogoi were sworn in as ministers of state with independent charge. Barman, Barkatoky and Sarkar are veteran Congress leaders and have been ministers earlier, while Ahmed, Munda, Patir, Mallick and Gogoi are the new entrants. Ajit Singh and Basanta Das were ministers of state with independent charge and have been elevated to the cabinet rank. The prominent ministers of the last council of ministers not included in the new team are Gautam Roy (Public Health Engineering), Pradyut Bordoloi (Industries & Commerce, Power, Public Enterprises and Education), Nilamoni Sen Deka (Agriculture, Horticulture & Food Processing, Parliamentary Affairs and Irrigation) and Prithibi Majhi (Revenue & Disaster Management, Labour & Employment and Tea Tribes Welfare). Tanka Bahadur Rai (Planning & Development, Judicial, Legislative, Pension and Public Grievance), Akon Bora (Social Welfare and Jail), Pranati Phukan (Handloom, Textiles, Sericulture and Cultural Affairs) and Rajib Lochan Pegu (Water Resources and WPT&BC-excluding BTAD areas) are the other ministers who have been dropped this time. On 19 January, all the 14 members of the council of ministers except Gogoi had resigned from their posts paving the way for the much-awaited reshuffle. Since the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in Assam last year dissidence had reared its head in the CLP which led to demands for reshuffle of the cabinet by dropping some ministers and induction of new faces. PTI