Bengal cabinet rejig: Nine including Babul Supriyo take oath as ministers

The Mamata Banerjee led cabinet in West Bengal underwent a reshuffle on Wednesday, with the induction of eight new faces including Babul Supriyo who became a Trinamool MLA after winning a bye-election, having quit the BJP and joining the Trinamool Congress earlier.

The reshuffle comes days after veteran party leader and minister in the government, Partha Chatterjee was sacked. Chatterjee is being probed for his role in the recruitment scam that concerns irregular appointments in government-aided schools in the state.

Governor La Ganesan administered the oath. In total nine leaders took oath as ministers, including Birbaha Hansda, who was already a part of the cabinet. Chatterjee in his capacity as a minister, had industry, commerce, and enterprises, IT and electronics, public enterprises & industrial reconstruction, and parliamentary affairs departments in his portfolio, before he was removed from ministerial responsibilities, and all party posts, and was suspended from the party.

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Dr Shashi Panja will now take care of industry, commerce, and enterprises, and public enterprises and industrial reconstruction. Sohandeb Chattopadhyay, another minister, has been allotted parliamentary affairs department. The information technology and electronics department has been given to Babul Supriyo. Supriyo is now also the new minister for tourism.

The new ministers, besides Supriyo, are Snehasis Chakraborty, minister in charge (MIC) transport; Partha Bhowmick, MIC, irrigation and waterways, Udayan Guha, MIC north Bengal development; Pradeep Majumdar, MIC panchayats and rural development; Biplab Roy Chowdury, minister of state (MoS) fisheries (independent charge); Tajmul Hossain, MoS micro, small and medium enterprises and textiles; and Satyajit Barman, MoS school education.

The reshuffle with induction of eight new ministers, stands apart as a major one in the eleven-year rule of the Trinamool government. Two senior Trinamool ministers passed away in the last few months (in November and February), and the third is in ED custody.

The reshuffle, however, appears to be reasonable in political context too. Hansda, earlier a minister of state, is now a minister with independent charge. Hansda comes from Jhargram, a region with a substantial tribal vote base. The BJP has a strong support in tribal bases. The Trinamool recently didn’t support Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential election, who also represents the community.

The three ministers Udayan Guha, Tajmul Hossain, and Satyajit Barman, all represent the northern districts of the state, from where the BJP derives its core political strength.

Partha, Arpita remanded to ED custody till Friday

A special court at City Sessions Court in Kolkata, on Wednesday, remanded Chatterjee and Arpita Mukherjee, considered his close associate, to police custody of the Enforcement Directorate till Friday. The two were already in ED custody that came to an end today, in accordance with an earlier court order. ED has continued its investigation in the case, and has been probing other properties said to have links with Mukherjee, and the former minister. The matter is being investigated.