By PTI
NEW DELHI: With two cabinet ministers and three ministers of state, the Northeastern region was on Wednesday handsomely rewarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first reshuffle of his ministry in the second tenure.
The BJP had won 14 out of the region’s 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the 2019 Parliamentary elections while its allies had bagged five.
Among those who were administered oath Wednesday evening include Sarbananda Sonowal, who gracefully exited the post of Assam’s chief minister even though his government was voted back to power in the assembly elections in March-April.
Sonowal, 58, is currently an MLA in Assam’s Majuli and is expected to come to Rajya Sabha when the election will be held to a vacant seat of the Upper House from the state.
Sonowal was also twice elected to Lok Sabha in the past and was the sports and skill development minister in the first Modi government from 2014 to 2016 before becoming the chief minister of Assam.
Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, who was holding the charge of minister of state with independent charge, has also taken oath as a cabinet minister.
Rijiju, 49, is a three-time Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal West constituency and was a minister of state for home in the first Modi government from 2014-2019.
Lok Sabha MP from Tripura West, Pratima Bhoumik, has also taken oath as minister of state.
The 52-year-old BJP leader was elected to the Lower House for the first time in 2019 and has become a union minister from Tripura after almost three decades.
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, who took oath as minister of state, is a first-time MP of the BJP from Inner Manipur seat.
Sixty-eight-year-old Singh was a professor of geography for four decades before becoming a lawmaker of the saffron party two years ago.
The Modi government also has a minister of state from Assam in Rameswar Teli.
A two-term Lok Sabha MP, 50-year old Teli is so far holding the charge of the union minister of state for food processing industries.
