With Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi all set to take the oath on Wednesday, hectic lobbying has started among legislators to find a place in the new council of ministers.
If Gogoi loyalists are not leaving any stone unturned to keep their opponents out of new ministry, a large number of “giant killers” have also thrown their hat in to the ring thereby making it difficult for the chief minister to narrow down his choices.
Among those who are almost certain to find a place in the Gogoi’s council of ministers include Himanta Biswa Sarma who defeated his rival of BJP by the highest margin of 80,000 votes and Rockybul Hussain who defeated two-time chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta in one of his two constituencies.
The equally powerful contender is former industry minister Pradyut Bodoloi and Gautam Roy for a ministerial berth. If insiders are to be believed, chief minister is trying hard to create some more vacancies by denying ministerial berth to old guards of the party like Bhumidhar Barman and Pranab Gogoi by bringing in relatively younger faces like Neelmani Sen Deka, who defeated AGP president Chandra Mohan Patowary and Anjan Dutta, who had the credit of reviving Assam State Transport Corporation in his first term as transport minister.
The defeat of minister Bharat Chandra Narah has created a vacancy in the northern Assam for which Jonai MLA Pradan Baruah who got more than 97000, the highest vote in the state is the strongest contender.
Mr Baruah has also the credit of winning a seat for the party in an area where construction of a dam has been a major issue.
The most challenging job for Mr Gogoi is to give representation to the MLAs of various ethnic groups.