All ministers of Tarun Gogoi ministry resign

Guwahati, Jan 19: Paving way for the much-awaited reshuffle, all the 14 members of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's ministry on Monday resigned from their respective positions.

All the ministers went together and submitted their resignations to the Chief Minister at his official residence this evening, an official said.

"In the meeting of the council of ministers, all the ministers have put in their papers so that the reshuffle can be carried out in a smooth manner," the official told PTI.

The Chief Minister has requested the ministers to continue working in their posts till the reshuffle is done.

"The new council of ministers is likely to take oath on January 23 after the Governor returns to the state," the source said.

After the Congress' Lok Sabha debacle in the state and emergence of dissidence last year, Gogoi has been maintaining that his Cabinet would be reshuffled.

The proposed reshuffle postponed many times and Gogoi had said that reshuffle would take place during first week of January.

However, newly elected Congress state unit president Anjan Dutta had requested to effect the reshuffle after Bhogali Bihu festival due to the training session of the party's sevadal in the state capital.

The bundle of resignations comprise letters of 11 cabinet ministers and three ministers of state with Independent charge.

PTI