Guwahati

The Assam cabinet is set to expand on Friday with the induction of 12 MLAs, including three new faces.

After the swearing-in ceremony, the strength of the Assam council of ministers will be 17, including CM Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Sarma and four other legislators had taken the oath on May 12.

Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the legislators in the presence of the chief minister at a function at the Jyoti-Bishnu Antarjatik Kala Mandir here.

The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled to begin at 12.45 pm. The Constitution-mandated optimal strength of ministers is 19 in the 126-member Assam assembly.

The new faces are BJP MLAs Ashwini Ray Sarkar, Nilima Devi and Sushanta Borgohain.

AGP’s Keshab Mahanta, a minister in the previous NDA government, has also been included on the ministerial list.

Biswajit Daimary, the Speaker of the previous assembly, is also on the list of new ministers.

The remaining MLAs, who will take oath, are Ashok Singhal, Ranoj Pegu, Bimal Borah, Jayant Mallabaruah, Kaushik Rai, Krishnendu Paul and Pijush Hazarika. All of them are from the BJP and had served as ministers in the previous Himanta Biswa Sarma government.

The ministers sworn in earlier are AGP's Atul Bora, BPF's Charan Boro and BJP's Ajanta Neog and Rameshwar Teli.

The new cabinet will have 13 BJP ministers, two from the AGP and one from the BPF.

Neog and Nilima Devi will be the two women ministers in the cabinet, and the number remains the same as in the previous council.

The expanded ministry will have representation from several ethnic communities and geographical regions.

There will be two representatives, Kaushik Rai and Krishnendu Paul, from the Barak Valley, while BPF's Boro and BJP's Daimary represent the Bodo community.

Besides, Pegu is from the Mising tribe, Ray Sarkar from the Koch Rajbongshi and Borgohain from the Ahom community.

Borgohain, along with Borah, is from Upper Assam, Singhal from the northern part of the state, Pijush Hazarika from central Assam, and Mallabaruah from lower Assam.

The NDA won a record 102 seats of the 126-member assembly, including 82 from the BJP, in the last state elections.

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The BJP allies, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland People's Front (BPF), bagged 10 seats each.