Sonowal pays floral tribute to Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, Syama Prasad Mookerjee at BJP headquarters

New Delhi [India], July 8 (ANI): Former Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Thursday paid floral tribute to Jana Sangh leader Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Syama Prasad Mookerjee at BJP headquarters.
This comes as all newly-inducted minsiters in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Council of Ministers are meeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Jagat Prakash Nadda at party headquarters today.
Sonowal, who took oath as Union Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Cabinet, will take charge of the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and Minister of AYUSH today.
As many as 43 leaders took oath on Wednesday in the first Union Cabinet reshuffle and expansion after Prime Minister Modi returned to power for a second term in May 2019.
The swearing-in ceremony, which took place at Rashtrapati Bhavan amid COVID-19 protocols, came days ahead of the monsoon session of parliament.
He was Assam's Chief Minister between 2016 and 2021. He has earlier served as Union Minister of State (Independent charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Sports and Youth Affairs in PM Modi's cabinet during his first term.

Sonowal had started from students politics and was the president of Assam's oldest student body, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) from 1992 to 1999. He was the president of the Union from 1992 to 1999. Also from 1994 - 2004, Sonowal was the Chairman of North East Students Organisation (NESO), the umbrella student organisation spread across the seven North-Eastern States.
From 2001 to 2004, he served as MLA, Assam Legislative Assembly from Moran Constituency. From 2004 - 2009, he served as Member of Parliament, 14th Lok Sabha from Dibrugarh Constituency. (ANI)