Guwahati: Himanta Biswa Sarma’s second term as Assam chief minister began with a four-member cabinet — BJP’s Rameswar Teli and Ajanta Neog, AGP’s Atul Bora, and BPF’s Charan Boro — representing the state’s diverse constituencies.Together, they represent the state’s tea tribes, women leadership, regional allies, and the Bodo heartland, signalling a carefully balanced cabinet formation under the NDA 3.0’s 102-seat mandate.Teli, a prominent tea-tribe leader, brings representation for the state’s s tea garden community, a decisive voting bloc, while Ajanta Neog, the state’s longest-serving woman MLA and first woman finance minister, embodies continuity and women empowerment.AGP president Atul Bora anchors the alliance and represents upper Assam’s regional identity politics rooted in the Assam agitation. Charan Boro, from BPF, ensures that the Bodo heartland remains part of the NDA’s political fold.Sarma is likely to expand the cabinet by next week, but with only 14 berths available (Assam’s ceiling is 19 berths, including the CM), the full cabinet formation will be a test of Sarma’s political acumen.BJP with 82 seats in the 126-member assembly is comfortably placed on its own. Yet, because of its pre-poll alliance with the AGP and BPF — both holding 10 seats each — CM Sarma will have to carefully navigate cabinet formation without unsettling his partners.Interestingly, the leadership of both AGP and BPF has publicly said they are not pressing for ministerial berths, acknowledging that BJP no longer depends on them for numbers.Sarma also has room for nominating two more MLAs for the post of speaker and deputy speaker of the assembly. He has announced that former cabinet minister Ranjeet Kumar Dass’ name will be nominated for election to post of speaker, but is yet to name the NDA candidate for the post of deputy speaker.As Sarma prepares to expand his cabinet, he must accommodate demands from upper Assam, the Barak Valley, Bodoland, the hills and lower Assam.
