Guwahati, Dec 5: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday announced that four MLAs, two from Upper Assam and two from Barak Valley, would be inducted in the state Cabinet on December 7.
Taking to social media, Sarma stated that Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phookan; Doomdooma MLA Rupesh Goala; Lakhipur MLA Kaushik Rai and Patharkandi MLA Krishnendu Paul would be sworn in as ministers in the state Cabinet. “My best wishes to each of them!”, he said.
Notably, the Assam Cabinet is set for an expansion on Saturday amid growing calls to address the workload on the ministers and improve regional representation ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections in the state.
Thanking the chief minister for the decision, veteran BJP leader and Dibrugarh legislator Prasanta Phookan said the ministerial berth, during the course of a long political journey, would provide him an opportunity to serve the state with dedication and that he was ready to take up the responsibility with all earnestness.
According to reports, in a move to accommodate one of the ministers from Upper Assam, Tinsukia MLA and Cabinet minister Sanjoy Kishan, who holds the tea tribes’ welfare and labour welfare portfolio, has been instructed to step down as minister.
Kishan, 54, who belongs to the tea tribes community, is set to make way for Rupesh Goala, who is also from the tea tribes community in Upper Assam.
Notably, Kishan had also served as a minister in the Cabinet of former Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal.