Power minister and senior Congress leader Jarbom Gamlin was sworn in as the new chief minister of Arunachal Pradesh Thursday night in the wake of untimely death of Dorjee Khandu in a chopper crash.
Fifty-year-old Gamlin was administered oath of office and secrecy by the Governor, General (retd) J J Singh in the Raj Bhawan at Itanagar in the presence of senior Congress leaders, all the Congress legislature party members, and union ministers, including Bijoy Krishna Handique, Mukul Wasnik and V Narayanswami.
Born in 1961 at Alo in West Siang district of the state, Gamlin did his schooling in Goalpara in Assam before shifting to Delhi in for further studies. He obtained his BA degree in 1982 and LLB degree in 1984.
He headed the powerful All Arunachal Pradesh Students' Union from 1981 to 1983 and began his political career in 1999 hen he was elected a member of Lok Sabha as a Congress candidate from Arunachal West constituency defeating Omak Apang, son of Gegong Apang.
In 2004, Gamlin made his debut in the state assembly winning from Liromova constituency in West Siang district and became Home and Parliamentary Affairs Minister in Gegong Apang cabinet.
However, within a year, Gamlin was sacked from Apang ministry following differences between him and the then Chief Minister. In 2007, Gamlin got back to Gegong Apang by engineering the latter's ouster as Chief Minister and helping Dorjee taking over the reins of the state.
On being re-elected member of legislative assembly from Nilo Mova, Gamlin was made the Power Minister.
Second among the eight children of a government employee, Gamlin has two wives one of whom is an IAS officer and is a Joint Secretary in the Union Health Ministry. He has two daughters and a son. Off politics, Gamlin is a fan of cricket, football and tennis.
After taking oath, Gamlin said that his priority would be translate the dream of late Dorjeee Khandu to bring about massive improvement of infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh a reality.
With additional reportage from PTI
