In a major reshuffle of the West Bengal Council of Ministers on Wednesday, eight new MLAs were inducted as Ministers in the government headed by Mamata Banerjee. Five new Cabinet Ministers, including Babul Supriyo, were sworn in at the Raj Bhawan. The new Ministers also included three Ministers of State. The Cabinet reshuffle was necessitated after Partha Chatterjee’s arrest and the State government relieving him from the ministerial responsibilities.
Mr. Supriyo, a former Union Minister quit the Bharatiya Janata Party in September 2021 after being dropped from the Union Council of Ministers. He was elected from the Ballygunge Assembly seat on the Trinamool Congress ticket in April 2022. The four other Cabinet Ministers sworn in are Snehasish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmick, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumdar.
Three new Ministers of State are Tajmul Hussain, Satyajit Barman and Biplab Roychowdhury. Birbaha Hansda, who was Minister of State, has been elevated to Minister of State (Independent charge). The Ministers were sworn in by Governor La. Ganesan. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was present. Ms. Banerjee has tried to include every community and region in the reshuffle. Mr. Udayan Guha is an MLA from Dinhata in north Bengal, while Mr. Tajmul Hussain, MLA from Malda, represents the minority community.
Four Ministers dropped
With the reshuffle the number of Ministers in the government headed by Mamata Banerjee has increased to 52. The Chief Minister also dropped four ministers including Paresh Chandra Adhikary, whose name had surfaced in the School Service Commission recruitment scam. The Calcutta High Court had directed that Mr. Adhikary’s daughter be sacked from the post of a teacher in a State-run school. The other ministers dropped from the Council of Ministers led by Ms. Banerjee are Humayun Kabir and Ratna De Nag.
Portfolio allocation
While allocating the portfolios, the Chief Minister had assigned Department of Information Technology and Electronics and Tourism Department to Babul Supriyo. Snehasish Chakraborty was allocated portfolio of Transport Department, while Udayan Guha will be in charge of North Bengal Development. Pradeep Majumdar will be in charge of State’s Panchayat Department.
The crucial department of Industries and Commerce went to Sashi Panja and the department of Parliamentary Affairs went to senior Trinamool Congress leader Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay. Partha Chatterjee had held Industries and Commerce and Parliamentary Affairs department.
One person one post
The Cabinet reshuffle also highlights the party’s emphasis on one person one post, a formula proposed by Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. MLAs Partha Bhowmick and Snehasish Chrakraborty were relieved of their party responsibilities before being inducted into the Cabinet. Other than the developments centering Mr. Partha Chatterjee, the Cabinet led by Ms. Banerjee had lost two senior members — Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande — who died after the 2021 Assembly polls. Subrata Mukherjee who was in-charge of the Panchayat Department passed away in November 2021 and Sadhan Pande, who held Consumer Affairs Department, died in February 2022. Mr. Partha Chatterjee held four key ministries before July 28, when he was removed from ministerial responsibilities following the arrest by the Enforcement Directorate in the School Service Commission recruitment scam.
