Mamata Banerjee also inducted four junior ministers — Birbaha Hansda, Biplab Roy Chowdhury, Tajmul Hossain and Satyajit Burman.
Kolkata: Days after sacking Partha Chatterjee as a cabinet minister, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday inducted five newcomers into the cabinet and the biggest name among them is former Union minister of BJP Babul Supriyo. The singer-politician had joined the Trinamool Congress last year.
The others who were allotted seats in the cabinet are Snehashish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumder. Chakraborty is TMC’s state spokesperson and handles the Hooghly district unit. Bhowmik is a three-time MLA from the Naihati Assembly seat while Guha, who was a Forward Bloc leader, had joined the TMC in 2016.
The new ministers took oath on Wednesday afternoon, days after Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate after the agency unearthed nearly Rs 50 crore unaccounted money from the properties of Chatterjee’s aide Arpita Mukherjee.
Banerjee also inducted four junior ministers — Birbaha Hansda, Biplab Roy Chowdhury, Tajmul Hossain and Satyajit Burman. Hansda, a tribal leader and Chowdhury, will have independent charge.
While announcing the expansion on Tuesday, Banerjee had said, “We have lost ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande and Partha is in jail so their work has to be done too. Not possible for me alone to do it all.”
Partha Chatterjee was relieved from ministerial duties after his arrest. He was in charge of five key departments, including industry, commerce and enterprises and parliamentary affairs.
Banerjee on Monday had carried out a major overhaul within the party, changing the leadership of 16 of the 35 organisational districts. Several of the “non-performers” were removed and some were relieved of organisational duties.
