Guwahati: Himanta Biswa Sarma would be sworn in as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam at a simple ceremony on Monday (May 10). The Cabinet or the Council of Ministers would also be sworn at 12 noon.
Arrangements are underway at the Srimanta Sankardev Kalakshetra, Guwahati for the swearing-in ceremony. The space at the Governor's House would be restricted and would not be appropriate as per COVID protocol, therefore it has been decided to hold the ceremony at Kalakshetra.
BJP allies AGP and UPPL have already assured their support to Sarma as the next CM. A team of BJP leaders including Sarma, Assam BJP President Ranjeet Kr Dass, outgoing CM Sarbananda Sonowal, AGP President Atul Bora and UPPL President Promod Boro would be meeting Governor Jagdish Mukhi and stake claim to form the government.
Sarma would form the government with the support of 59 BJP MLAs, 9 AGP MLAs and 6 MLAs of UPPL.
BJP won 60 seats, AGP won 9 and UPPL won 6 seats. NDA (BJP and its allies in Assam, AGP and UPPL) is comfortably placed with 75 MLAs to form the next government in the 126-member Assam Legislative Assembly. The halfway mark is 64.
Without losing any time, CM-designate Sarma announced that the Cabinet Ministers would be sworn in on Monday. The 52-year-old Chief Minister-designate is expected to pick his Cabinet from among a select group of MLAs whom he considers to be dynamic, efficient, productive and dependable. While most of the senior Ministers (Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Phani Bhushan Choudhury, Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta, Transport, Commerce and Industries Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary and Law Minister Siddhartha Bhattacharyya are likely to retain their Ministership in the Himanta Biswa Cabinet, new faces like that of Gobinda Basumatary and U G Brahma senior UPPL leaders, Nandita Garlosa, first-time BJP MLA from Haflong, senior BJP MLAs Atul Bora (Dispur), Prasanta Phukan (Dibrugarh), Ajanta Neog (Golaghat) are likely to be part of Himanta Biswa Sarma Cabinet.
Sarma would try his best to get representatives from the tea tribe community, Hindi speaking community, the Tai Ahom community and other tribes as part of his Cabinet.
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