♛Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday expanded his cabinet with four BJP MLAs sworn in as ministers.
The ministers are yet to be allocated their portfolios with the chief minister like🌼ly to reshuffle and redistribute the depa☂rtments among the 19 ministers by Saturday evening.
♛Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday expanded his cabinet with four BJP MLAs sworn in as ministers.
Assam Governor Laxman Prasad Acharya administered the oath of office to the four new ministers - Prasanta Phookan, Kaushik💧 Rai, Krishnendu Paul, and Rupesh Goala at the Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra here.
The chief minister and members of his cabinet🐟 were 🧜present on the occasion.
''C🍷ongratulations to all my colleagues who have taken oath today. Looking forward to working with them to fulfil Adarniya Shri @narendramodi ji's vision of a Viksit Assam'', the chief minister posted on X.
Phukan is a four-time MLA from Dibrugarh, Paul a two-time M🔯LA from Patharkandi while Rai and Goala are first-time MLAs fr🧜om Lakhipur and Doom Dooma respectively.
Phukan and Goala represent the Upper Assam tea districts of Dibruagah and Tinsukia respectively while Pa🐼ul and Rai are from the two Barak Valley districts of Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj) and Cachar.
Sarma now heads a 19-member council of minis🍸ters.
Tea Welfare and Labour minister Sanjay Kishan, who represents the Tinsukia constituency, resig🔯ned from office on Thursday, to pave the way for Goala with both representing the 🥃tea tribe community.
Kishan has since been appointed as the Chairman of the Assam Food and Civil Supplies department.
Parimal Suklabaidya had resigned from the Himanta Biswa Sarma cabinet after he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Silchar (SC) constituency earlier this year.
All the new ministers thanked the chief ministerꦰ for including them in his ministry.
They als🎃o pledged to serve the people and work for the༺ development of the state.
The ministers are yet to be allocated their portfolios with the chief mini🌄ster likely to reshuffle and redistribute the departments among the 19 ministers by Saturday evening.
The newly sworn-in ministers will attend their first ca✤binet meeting later tonig🍒ht.
Seventy-year-old Phookan is a BJP veteran and has represented Dibrugarh constituency for four consecutive🍰 terms since 2006.
Goala, a former student leader belonging to the tea tribe, ha🃏d joined the BJP prior to the 2021 assembly elections.
The 46-year-old was given the party's ticket from Doo💛m Dooma constituency in Tinsukia district and emerged winner in his maiden outing at the hustings.
From Barak Valley, 50-year-ol💛d first-time MLA Kaushik Rai and his party colleague 51-year-old Krishnendu Paul have become ♏ministers.
Sarma heads the NDA alliance government in the state with two Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) mi꧒nisters Atu𝓀l Bora and Keshav Mahanta and United Peoples' Party, Liberal (UPPL) U G Brahma members of his cabinet.
The rulin🍸g NDA h💟as 84 members in the 126-member state assembly.
The ch🍰ief minister and 14 other ministers were sworn in on May 10, 2021.
Sarma expanded his ministry on June 9, 2022, with the induction of two BJP legislators Nandita Garlosa and Jayanta M⭕alla Baruah as ministers.