It was Mamta’s biggest cabinet expansion since coming to power in 2011. The ministers took oath this afternoon, days after the arrest of the Chief Minister’s closest aide Partha Chatterjee in an alleged money laundering case.
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, reshuffled her cabinet days after suspending arrested ex-minister Partha Chatterjee. Among the five newcomers is Babul Supriyo a former Union minister of the BJP who joined the Trinamool Congress last year and has been rewarded with a cabinet berth. Along with Babul Supriyo, Snehashish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumder will be allotted seats in the cabinet.
It was Mamta’s biggest cabinet expansion since coming to power in 2011. The ministers took oath this afternoon, days after the arrest of the Chief Minister’s closest aide Partha Chatterjee in an alleged money laundering case. A Mountain of cash was recovered from the two properties belonging to his aide, Arpita Mukherjee, making the government the target of much criticism.
The ministers took oath on Wednesday. Snehashish Chakraborty is the party’s state spokesperson and handles the party unit in the Hooghly district. Partha Bhowmik is a three-term MLA from the Naihati Assembly seat and Udayan Guha was a Forward Bloc leader, who joined the Trinamool in 2016.
The four junior ministers appointed include Birbaha Hansda, Biplab Roy Chowdhury, Tajmul Hossain, and Satyajit Burman. Birbaha Hansda, a tribal leader, and Biplab Roy Chowdhury will have independent charges.
Partha Chatterjee was sacked of ministerial duties and all party posts after his arrest were in charge of five key departments including industry, commerce and enterprises, and parliamentary affairs.
While announcing the revamp on Tuesday, the CM said the number of districts in the state has also increased from 23 to 30, generating a bigger workload.
Ms. Banerjee said “We lost ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande. Partha is in jail so all their work has to be done. Not possible for me to handle alone.”
On Monday, the TMC supremo carried out a major overhaul within the party, changing the leadership of 16 of the 35 organizational districts. Several “non-performers” were axed, and some were relieved of organizational duties.
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