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Gogoi retains 18 Ministers

By Sushanta Talukdar

GUWAHATI, JULY 5. The Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, today retained 18 Ministers after the mandatory downsizing of his Ministry.

Announcing the list of Ministers retained, Mr. Gogoi said the resignation papers of those Ministers who had not been retained would be forwarded to the Governor, Lt. Gen.(retd.), Ajai Singh, for their acceptance. The Government would use the services of the Ministers not been retained in different capacities.

All the 34 Ministers had tendered their resignations to make things easier for Mr. Gogoi to downsize the Ministry.

The size of the Gogoi Ministry has now been reduced to 19 from 35 including the Chief Minister himself in the 126-member Assam Assembly. Of the 18 Ministers who have been retained by Mr. Gogoi, 11 were Cabinet Ministers, four were Ministers of State with independent charge and three were Ministers of State.

Prominent among those whose names were missing in the list included Mr. Gogoi's arch rival and Power Minister Devanand Konwar, Public Works Department Minister Sarat Barktoki, Industry Minister Bhubaneswar Kalita, Agriculture Minister Ardhendu Kumar Dey, Education Minister Pankaj Bora and Sports Minister Robin Bardoloi.

A close aide of the Chief Minister said that three broad criteria were followed by Mr. Gogoi for downsizing. These were results of the Lok Sabha election in the Assembly segments of a particular Ministers, representation of caste, community and various zones having political importance like Barak valley, upper Assam, Char areas.

Mr. Gogoi's aide also said that the Chief Minister had told few other party legislators who were aspiring to become minister that it was purely a downsizing of the existing Ministry and not a reshuffle. Mr. Gogoi reportedly assured the legislators of undertaking a reshuffle of the Ministry after six months.

Supporters of the PWD Minister, Sarat Barkatoki, protested in the Sonari Assembly constituency after they came to know that Mr. Barkatoki's name was missing in the list.

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