Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday carried out the much-awaited expansion and reshuffle of his ministry by inducting two first-timers and bringing cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma back as education minister.

Education was with cabinet minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya, whose handling of the midday meal workers’ protest against handing over the cooking and distribution of meals to NGOs, among others, had generated a lot of heat for Dispur. The new faces in the ministry are Mahmora MLA Jogen Mohan and Tinsukia MLA Sanjoy Kishan. Mohan was made minister of revenue and disaster management (independent charge) and PWD (minister of state) and Kishan was made minister of tea tribe welfare (independent charge) and labour welfare (minister of state).

The duo belong to the Ahom and tea tribes communities respectively, the two groups that voted for the ruling BJP in both the 2016 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The reshuffle which followed the expansion will see Sarma, in addition to education, continue to hold the finance, transformation and development, health and family welfare and PWD portfolios. Bhattacharya was given the portfolio of cooperation in addition to his existing Guwahati development and law and justice.

Ahead of the last reshuffle in 2018 Sarma had openly expressed his unwillingness to remain as education minister.

AGP president Atul Bora lost the town and country planning to Pijush Hazarika. Bora will continue to be the minister for agriculture, horticulture and food processing, animal husbandry and veterinary. Hazarika will continue to be the minister of state for health and family welfare.

Rihon Daimary, who lost the cooperation portfolio, has been given the portfolio of public enterprise. He will continue to hold public health engineering. Bhabesh Kalita, who lost the revenue and disaster amendment portfolio to Mohan, has been made minister of state for education.

Assam’s council of ministers can have a maximum of 19 members, including the chief minister. With Saturday’s expansion, the number of ministers has become 18 with the remaining berth likely to be filled up in April.

Kishan said, “I will get hardly one year. Whatever department I get I will try to run properly.”

Mohan said he would try to fulfil his responsibility sincerely.

“I am very grateful to the chief minister and the party leadership,” he said.

The BJP government does not try to douse the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Upper Assam by making two ministers from the Upper Assam districts, he added.