Even though people of Assam had given a clear mandate to the Congress party to take over the reigns in Dispur for the next five-years, the state is yet to get a full-fledged government as finalisation of council of ministers is still awaited. The government in Assam presently consists of just the chief minister.
Soon after taking the oath, chief minister Tarun Gogoi flew to New Delhi to hold discussion with the party high command to finalise the list of ministers, and since then has been camping in Delhi. Earlier, it was said that his stay had to be prolonged as he wasn’t getting the appointment of party president Soinia Gandhi. But, having met her on Monday, the question now remains what is delaying Gogoi from either announcing the list or returning to the state.
It is understood that Gogoi is faced with the problem of plenty as he has to chose 18 MLAs out of 78 (Congress had won 78 seats in the polls) to form his ministry. And, speculations are also rife that the list that he had finalised might not have got the green-signal from the party high command and there might be some pressure on him from the high command to make changes in the list to accommodate their favourites, which is prolonging his stay in Delhi.
Moreover, the Congress has already announced that Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), Congress’ coalition partner in the last government, too would get at least one or two ministerial posts this time too, even though both the parties did not have any pre-poll understanding.
However, for the MLAs, the wait is becoming a never ending one. First, it was more than a month’s wait for the results, and now the wait for ministerial posts. Few are also camping in Delhi to impress upon Gogoi and other senior leaders to get a ministerial berth. Gogoi has already said that first and second timers will not be made ministers in the present government. Also, there is possibility of few ministers of the last government being dropped this time due to their non-performance. He also indicated that all the communities in Assam will get a fair representation in the ministry.