New Assam cabinet to be sworn-in Friday

Guwahati, Jan 22 (IANS) Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will Friday reconstitute his council of ministers, a Congress leader said Thursday.

Gogoi Thursday sent a list of 14 Congress legislators to the governor and the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10.30 a.m. Friday, state Congress president Anjan Dutta told the media outside the chief minister's official residence.

Assam Governor (in-charge) P.B. Acharya, who is also the governor of Nagaland, arrived in the city Thursday for the swearing-in ceremony.

Girindra Mallick, Chandan Sarkar, Sumitra Patir, Sukur Ali and Bismita Gogoi will be the new faces, Dutta said.

The rest of the names are Bhumidhar Barman, Sarat Borkotoky, Nazrul Islam, Rockybul Hussain, Basanta Das, Ajit Singh, Etuwa Munda, Ajanta Neog and Kharsing Ingty, he said.

Fourteen ministers had resigned Monday during a meeting of the council of ministers to facilitate the reshuffle.

Gogoi had last year dropped ministers Ardhendy Kumar Dey and Siddeque Ahmed for dissidence, while then health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had resigned and Bodoland Peoples' Front legislator Chandan Brahma also quit after his party ended the over 10-year-old alliance with the Congress.

The state Congress chief, however, made it clear that there was no dissidence or discontent among the party legislators over the reshuffle, and everyone has decided to work together for the assembly polls scheduled for 2016.

This will be the first reshuffle in the last 14-year rule of the Congress in Assam under Tarun Gogoi.

Although the first two terms saw success, the third term has been turbulent with many party leaders demanding a change in leadership.