Assam Governor P.B. Acharya on Friday administered the oath of office and secrecy to a 14-member new team of Ministers, including eight new faces, chosen by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for the first phase of reshuffle of his ministry. Eleven of them were sworn-in as cabinet ministers and three as Ministers of State with independent charges at the swearing-in ceremony held at Raj Bhawan here.
Mr Gogoi plans to effect the second phase of reshuffle of his ministry to fill four more berths still left vacant, after the results of the February 10 elections to 74 municipal bodies and town committees in the state are declared. All the 14 ministers in his previous team resigned on Jan 19 to facilitate Mr Gogoi to reshuffle his ministry and choose a new team.
For past more than two years, the issue of ministry reshuffle and dissidence centring round it dominated the Congress politics in the state and the reshuffle finally took place on Friday morning when little over a year is left for 2016 assembly polls.
Veteran Congress leader Bhumidhar Barman, who earlier held the office of Chief Minister for a brief period of 23 days (April 22 to May 14, 1996), was the first to take oath. Other ten cabinet ministers who were sworn-in after him were Sarat Barkataky, Ajanta Neog, Nazrul Islam, Rockybul Hussain, Khorsing Engti, Chandan Sarkar, Sukur Ali, Ajit Singh, Basanta Das and Atuwa Munda.
The three Congress legislators, who were sworn-in as Ministers of State with independent-charge were Girindra Mallik, Bismita Gogoi and Sumitra Doley Patir.
The new Gogoi-team has three women —former Public Works Development Minister Ajanta Neog and first time ministers—Bismita Gogoi and Sumitra Doley Patir. The Chief Minister re-inducted six of the 14 ministers in his previous team. They were Ajanta Neog, Nazrul Islam, Rockybul Hussain, Khorsing Engti, Ajit Singh, Basanta Das.
Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhawan was over, Mr Gogoi exuded confidence, while speaking to journalists that the ruling Congress would win the 2016 assembly polls in the state.
The Chief Minister also claimed that his party would perform better in the elections to the municipal bodies and town committees. He was, however, quick to add that ministers alone cannot help the party to win and everyone in the party would be required to go to the polls as a team.
