West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee expands Cabinet with induction of 43 ministers
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expanded her Cabinet on Monday with the induction of 43 ministers. This takes the total number of ministers in the state Cabinet to 44 including the CM. Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered the oath of office and secrecy to all the new ministers at a low-key ceremony at Raj Bhavan.
Mamata Banerjee had on May 5 taken oath as the Chief Minister for a record third term. She took the oath in Bengali as the 21st CM and 8th person to hold the office.
A total of 17 new faces, including former cricketer Manoj Tiwary, are among the 43 TMC leaders who were inducted into Banerjee's cabinet. This includes 24 cabinet ministers, 10 Ministers of State (Independent Charge) and 9 Ministers of State.
The list of Cabinet ministers are: Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee, Amit Mitra, Sadhan Pande, Jyoti Priya Mallick, Bankim Chandra Hazra, Manas Ranjan Bhunia, Saumen Kumar Mahapatra, Moloy Ghatak, Aroop Biswas, Ujjal Biswas, Arup Roy, Rathin Ghosh, Firhad Hakim, Chandranath Sinha, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Bratya Basu, Pular Roy, Shashi Panja, Md. Ghulam Rabbani, Biplab Mitra, Javed Ahmed Khan, Swapan Debnath and Siddiqullah Choudhary.
The 10 Ministers of State with Independent Charge are: Becharam Manna, Subrata Saha, Humayun Kabir, Akhil Giri, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Ratna De Nag, Sandhyarani Tudu, Bulu Chik Baraik, Sujit Bose and Indranil Sen. The 9 Ministers of State are: Dilip Mondal, Akhruzzaman, Seuli Saha, Srikant Mahato, Yeasmin Sabina, Birbaha Hansda, Jyotsna Mandi, Adhikary Paresh Chandra and Manoj Tiwari.
Three TMC leaders Amit Mitra, Bratya Basu and Rathin Ghosh were sworn-in virtually. Mitra is unwell and both Basu and Ghosh are recuperating from COVID-19.
The West Bengal Legislative Assembly has 294 seats, but the elections were held for 292 seats. Polling to the Jangipur and Samseehanj seats was deferred due to the death of candidates. Going by the rule, the total number of Ministers, including the Chief Minister, in the Council of Ministers in a State shall not exceed 15 per cent.
The Trinamool Congress emerged victorious in the assembly polls, pocketing 213 seats, securing 47 per cent of the total votes polled during the eight-phased election. The Bharatiya Janata Party is now the principal opposition party in the state, winning 77 seats. The Congress-Left alliance failed to pocket even a single seat.
READ MORE: West Bengal Full List of Ministers in Mamata Banerjee government
