Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday expanded his ministry by inducting 12 ministers, of whom four are new faces.

The strength of the ministry now stands at 17. Sarma and four ministers were sworn in on May 12, eight days after the BJP-led coalition swept the Assembly polls by winning 102 of the 126 seats.

The maximum strength of the state cabinet is 19 in the Assam Assembly.

Assam governor L.P. Acharya administered the oath of office to Ashwini Ray Sarkar, Ashok Singhal, Bimal Borah, Biswajit Daimary, Jayanta Mallabaruah, Kaushik Rai, Keshab Mahanta, Krishnendu Paul, Nilima Devi, Pijush Hazarika, Dr Ranoj Pegu and Susanta Borgohain.

Of those inducted on Friday, only Keshab Mahanta is from the AGP. Mahanta was in both Sarma’s previous cabinet and the Sarbananda Sonowal-led first BJP government in the state.

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

Sarma held a cabinet meeting in the evening within hours of the swearing-in ceremony, which was held at the Jyoti-Bishnu Antarjatik Kala Mandir in Guwahati.

In a post on X, Sarma said: “Today, the expanded #TeamAssam took oath of office and secrecy to serve the people of Assam. It’s a balanced team which represents the aspirations of all sections of people and their experience and wisdom will further strengthen our resolve of building a #ViksitAssam.”

The four new faces included Ashwini Ray Sarkar, Biswajit Daimary, Susanta Borgohain and Nilima Devi.

Ray Sarkar, representing Golakganj in Dhubri district, became an MLA for a second time this year after 2016.

Daimary, the Speaker in the last Assembly and a former Rajya Sabha member, has been elected from the Tamulpur constituency.

Borgohain, a third-time MLA, had first represented the Congress from 2011-16 and later joined the BJP. He had won on a BJP ticket in 2021. He represents the Demow constituency in Upper Assam.

Nilima Devi, the president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha, has been elected to the Assembly for the first time and represents the Mangaldoi constituency.

Chandra Mohan Patowary, Prasanta Phukan, Charan Boro, ministers in the first Sarma government have not made the cut as of Friday.

Of the 17 ministers, 14 are from the BJP, including Sarma, two from the AGP and one from the BPF. Ajanta Neog and Nilima Devi are the two women ministers in the cabinet, and the number remains the same as in the previous cabinet. The BJP-led coalition has been in power since 2016.

Additional reporting by PTI