Assam Cabinet expansion: Several new faces, no room for high-profile Congress defectors

With this expansion, the council will have 17 ministers from the BJP, two from the AGP and one from the BPF.

Among the new entrants is the Speaker of the last Legislative Assembly, senior Bodo leader Biswajit Daimary, who had joined the BJP in 2020 after quitting the BPF. First-time MLA Nilima Devi, who is the president of the Assam Pradesh BJP Mahila Morcha, will also be inducted and will be one of two women ministers, along with veteran Ajanta Neog, who was sworn in with Sarma. The two other new entrants are Ashwini Roy Sarkar, a Bengali Hindu leader from Western Assam, and Sushanta Borgohain, an Ahom leader from Eastern Assam who had joined the BJP in 2021, defecting from the Congress after being elected as a Congress MLA that year. He was elected as a BJP MLA in a by-election later that year.

Notably, none of the high-profile Congress leaders who joined the BJP shortly before the election, including Pradyot Bordoloi, who was a sitting Lok Sabha MP when he jumped ship from the Congress, have been accommodated in the ministry. A notable drop from the last ministry is BJP leader Chandra Mohan Patowary, who was its senior-most member.

The new ministry does not include any leaders from the hill regions of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao. Since Assam can have up to 19 ministers, there is room for two more ministers in future expansion.