Govt reshuffle
Guwahati: The portfolios to the ministers following the reshuffle of the ministry will be distributed on Sunday, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here on Saturday.
The ministers had been sworn-in Friday by Governor P B Acharyya and initial reports had indicated that the portfolios will be announced on Saturday.
‘The portfolios of the ministers will be distributed tomorrow (Sunday). It won’t be don’t today(Saturday),’ Gogoi told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
Several of the new ministers visited the CM’s official residence here since this morning, in apparent bid to get departments of their choice.
Many legislators also called on the CM as he is expected to announce the names of new parliamentary secretaries also shortly.
Fourteen ministers – 11 Cabinet and three ministers of state (independent charge), were sworn-in on Friday, after all 14 incumbent ministers of the Gogoi ministry had resigned en-masse on January 19 last to enable the CM to reshuffle his ministry.
While six old faces were retained from among those who had resigned, the rest were new entrants in Gogoi’s ministry as CM for the third term.
Four ministerial berths remained vacant after the reshuffle, which are also likely to be filled up soon.
These four berths were lying vacant for several months following resignation of two ministers and sacking of two others.
The ministry reshuffle is an attempt to appease dissidents within the party as internal strife had dogged the Congress for nearly two years now.
This is the first time that Gogoi has reshuffled his ministry since assuming office in 2001, baring in 2004 when constitutional compulsion for downsizing of ministries had led him to reconstitute his ministry.
Tarun Gogoi had led the Congress to three successive victories in the state Assembly elections since 2001, but is facing an uphill task ahead of next year’s polls with the party taking a drubbing in the last year’s Lok Sabha polls. (UNI)
