Himanta Biswa Sarma on Assam cabinet reshuffle: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma ruled out any reshuffle in his ministry, but said big changes will take place after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and before the 2026 state Assembly election. Sarma also said he has met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and apprised him of the flood situation in the northeastern state.
"There will be no reshuffle (in the Assam cabinet) till the Lok Sabha polls. However, there will definitely be big changes after the Lok Sabha polls and before the (2026) Assembly election," he said.
Sarma also ruled out the possibility of any change in the leadership of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Assam unit.
"The state unit president of the BJP normally completes his tenure. A president has a fixed tenure. No change takes place halfway," he said.
Asked about the ongoing delimitation exercise of the Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam, Sarma said there is no opposition to it, adding that certain issues have cropped up relating to the redrawing and renaming of some of the constituencies and all this can be taken up during the forthcoming visit of Election Commission (EC) officials to the state. He said the state government has submitted a list of constituencies to the EC following grievances for making necessary modifications.
"The issues that have surfaced following the draft delimitation will be 99 per cent resolved if they are placed before the EC," the chief minister said.
Asked about the flood-like situation in Delhi, Sarma said urban flooding is a phenomenon in metropolitan cities and Assam's capital Guwahati is no exception. The BJP leader took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his comments on the Assam floods during his last visit to the state.
"Kejriwal said he would invite me for a tour of Delhi. I have been waiting for six months for his invite so that I can see what kind of development he has undertaken in the capital," he said.
During his meeting with Shah, Sarma apprised the home minister about the flood situation in the state and the slew of relief-and-rehabilitation measures adopted by his government to tackle the situation. The chief minister thanked the home minister for releasing Rs 340 crore as the central share of the State Disaster Response Fund for Assam, according to a release issued by the state government.
Sarma also met Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav and sought his help for procuring one crore quality saplings for plantation in Assam under the LiFE Mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yadav assured Sarma that he would help to rope in experts from Dehradun in the next two-three days for assisting the Assam government for the purpose.
The chief minister also met Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Friday evening and sought his help to find a suitable location for setting up a mega cultural complex in the national capital.
(With agencies inputs)
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