Himanta Biswa Sarma was on Monday afternoon sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam, succeeding Sarbananda Sonowal as Bharatiya Janata Party’s second.
Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi also administered the oath of office and secrecy to 13 others as Cabinet Ministers.
Three of those sworn in belong to BJP’s two regional allies. They are Asom Gana Parishad president Atul Bora and his party colleague Keshab Mahanta, and former MP Urkhao Gwra Brahma of United People’s Party Liberal.
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Ajanta Neog, the only woman in the ministry, had quit the Congress in December 2020 and joined the BJP. She was among six women elected to the 126-member Assam Assembly in the three-phase elections that concluded April 6.
The others sworn in were State BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass, Parimal Suklabaidya, Chandra Mohan Patowary, Ranoj Pegu, Sanjay Kishan, Jogen Mohan, Ashok Singhal, Pijush Hazarika and Bimal Bora.
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Dr Sarma and 10 others took oath in Assamese while Mr Brahma, Mr Suklabaidya and Mr Singhal opted for the Bodo, Bengali and English languages respectively.
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo and English are official languages in as many regions of the State.
Before the swearing-in ceremony, Dr Sarma had visited Kamakhya and a few other temples.
Eight of those sworn in, including Dr Sarma, were Ministers in the Sonowal government.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and his Tripura counterpart Biplab Kumar Deb were among the dignitaries who attended the swearing-in ceremony at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra.