HT Bureau
GUWAHATI, Dec 6: Four new ministers are to be inducted in the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Cabinet in Assam while one minister Sanjay Kishan was dropped from the Cabinet.
However, the chief minister on Friday asserted that Kishan will continue to work for his constituency and the party will give him proper space.
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Sarma told reporters in the national capital, “Sanjay Kishan has resigned from the post of minister and Rupesh Goala, an MLA from the same district—Tinsukia will be included in the cabinet. This is a normal thing and Kishan is a senior leader and MLA. He will continue his work for the development of his constituency and the party will also give him responsibility.”
The chief minister also said that the swearing-in of the four ministers will take place on Saturday at 12 noon.
Earlier, on Thursday, Sarma said in an X post, “Happy to share that the following colleagues will be sworn in as ministers in our cabinet on 7th December at 12 PM: Prasanta Phookan, MLA; Kaushik Rai, MLA; Krishnendu Paul, MLA; and Rupesh Goala, MLA. My best wishes to each of them!”
This is the first expansion of the Cabinet since Himanta Biswa Sarma took the chief minister’s post three years ago.
In the Cabinet, there are four vacant berths—three existed since the beginning when Sarma took the post of chief minister, while the other position became vacant after former minister Parimal Suklabaidya won this year’s Lok Sabha polls in the state.
Rai is believed to be the replacement of Suklabaidya as both of them belong to the same district.
Phookan is an MLA from Dibrugarh, while Paul is from the Patharkandi assembly constituency in the Sribhumi district.
Goala is a legislator from the Doom Dooma constituency in the Tinsukia district.
Both Rai and Gola became MLAs in the 2021 assembly polls while Paul won on a BJP ticket twice from the Patharkandi assembly seat.
Phookan is a senior BJP leader and a four-time MLA from Dibrugarh. He has not lost here since the 2006 assembly election.
