New Delhi, Jul 8 (IANS): West Bengal BJP leader Nisith Pramanik, who is serving his first term as a Member of Parliament after winning from the Cooch Behar Lok Sabha seat in 2019, on Thursday took charge as new Minister of State for Home Affairs along with his senior Cabinet colleague Nityanand Rai, the old face holding the MoS Home post since May 2019.

Both Pramanik, who won the West Bengal Assembly seat but didn't take oath as MLA, and Rai assumed charge of office around 3.30 p.m. in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Before taking charge of MoS, Pramanik took to Twitter to express his gratitude towards God, saying "by the blessings of almighty going to take the charge in Ministry of Home affairs as Minister of States...".

Pramanik was inducted into the Union Cabinet in the fresh reshuffle on Wednesday while Rai was given another term in the Home Ministry as MoS.

The 35-year-old politician, Pramanic, was among the leaders who had jumped ship from the Trinamool to the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Born in Jalpaiguri in north Bengal, Pramanik has a BCA degree and was an assistant teacher in a primary school.

Pramanik was one of the BJP MPs who had won in the recent West Bengal Assembly polls but later resigned from the Assembly and chose to continue as an MP. He did not take oath as an MLA and later said he would continue to remain an MP as per the directive of the BJP leadership. Pramanik had contested from and won the Dinhata seat by a margin of 57 votes.

Pramanik was one of the four sitting BJP MPs that the party had fielded in the Assembly polls held earlier this year. BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar had won the Santipur Assembly seat but also chose to not take oath as an MLA.

Before Pramanik, G. Kishan Reddy was holding charge of MoS Home along with Rai. In the fresh reshuffle, Reddy was promoted as Minister of Culture; Minister of Tourism and Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER).