BJP MLAs Jayanta Malla Baruah and Nandita Gorlosa on Thursday took oath as new Ministers in Assam as Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma embarked on his Cabinet’s first expansion, a month after completing one year in office. Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi administered the oath of office and secrecy to the two first time Ministers with

Baruah and Gorlosa pledged in Assamese and English respectively.

Sarma took over as Chief Minister of Assam on May 10 last year after BJP returned to power in the Assembly

elections for a second consecutive term.

Baruah, the Chief Minister’s Political Secretary, is an MLA from Nalbari while Gorlosa represents the Haflong constituency in the Assembly.

Baruah is a former Congress MLA and was elected for the first time in 2011. However, he did not complete his term and defected to the BJP after Sarma left the grand old party to join the BJP in 2015. Gorlosa is a first time MLA from the BJP.

With the two new inductees, the BJP-led Assam Government at present has 16 Cabinet Ministers and there is no one as Minister of State.

As per the 91st amendment of the Constitution in 2003, the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in a State should not exceed 15 per cent of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly.

As the Assam Assembly has a strength of 126 MLAs, a maximum of 19 ministers can function at a time.