Sarbananda Sonowal, former Assam CM, takes oath as Union Cabinet Minister

NEW DELHI: Assam's former chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has just taken oath as a Union Cabinet Minister as prime minister Narendra Modi brings about a major reshuffle in his Cabinet.

Sonowal, who was replaced by Himanta Biswa Sarma as the chief minister of the state after this year's state, shall be appointed as a Minister of State with independent charge. Sonowal was the second minister who took oath at the Rashtrapati Bhawan today.

A Minister of State with independent charge is a minister without an overseeing Cabinet Minister in the State or Union Government of India.

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According to reports, a lot of effort has been made, according to government sources, on ensuring that the marginalised communities get adequate representation in the reshuffle.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, formerly of the Congress party, has also been sworn into the Cabinet.

Earlier in the day, Union ministers Prakash Javadekar, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Harsh Vardhan, Santosh Gangwar, and others resigned from their posts ahead of the major Cabinet reshuffle.

Former union minister P Chidambaram took to Twitter on Wednesday to say, "The resignations of the Union Health Minister and the MoS Health is a candid confession that the Modi government has utterly failed in managing the pandemic."

As many as 43 members, including old and new ministers, are set to be sworn in this evening. According to reports, the new cabinet will be one of the most inclusive with record representation of SC, ST members.

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