Sarbananda Sonowal expands his cabinet; Assam BJP re-elects Ranjit Dass as president

In a major reshuffle and induction in Cabinet, ahead of 2021 Assam Assembly election, ruling BJP on Saturday inducted two new Minsters in its council.

Sanjay Kishan and Jogen Mohan were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Jagdish Mukhi at a simple ceremony in the Darbar Hall of the Raj Bhavan. Both Kishan and Mohan are first-time BJP MLAs and represent Tinsukia and Mahmora assembly constituencies respectively.

The ministries were reshuffled in the evening, where Himanta Biswa Sarma got back the Education portfolio along with existing Health, PWD & Finance. Siddhartha Bhattacharya has been dropped from the Education portfolio and has been allotted Law and justice along with Guwahati Development Department.

Freshly inducted Mahmora MLA Jogen Mohan got the Revenue and DM (Independent) and PWD (MoS) portfolios while Tinsukia MLA Sanjay Kishan got the Labour & Employment and Tea Tribes Welfare (Independent) portfolios.

Pijush Hazarika, Minister of State (Independent) Urban Development, Health & Family Welfare (State), got additional charge of Town and Country Planning portfolio.

With this, the strength of the Sonowal ministry has increased to 18, including the chief minister, with 12 from the BJP and three each from the alliance partners Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and Bodo People’s Front (BPF).

On the other hand, Assam BJP unit president Ranjeet Kumar Dass was re-elected to the post for a second consecutive term on Saturday.

The announcement was made at a party meeting held at the Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra here in presence of Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) convenor and state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.