Kolkata: With nine new MLAs taking oath as ministers, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee added eight new faces in her cabinet and a tribal MLA Birbaha Hansda who was earlier a minister of state is now given independent charge.
Apart from Hansda, Biplab Roy Chowdhuryalso took oath as MoS with independent charge. Tajmul Hossian and Satyajit Barman became the new MoS. Snehasish Chakraborty, Partha Burman, Udayan Guha, Pradip Majumdar and former union minister Babul Supriyo became the new ministers.
After taking the oath, Babul said that it has become a ‘complete’ circle as last year on August 3 he had tendered his resignation from the Union Ministry, and this year on the same day, he again became a minister.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on last Monday had said that two ministers have died and Partha Chatterjee is in Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody for which there is a need to reshuffe the cabinet.
Chatterjee, who had been relieved of ministerial duties, used to manage four departments including industry, commerce and enterprises, Information Technology and Parliamentary Affairs.
On Wednesday, the ministries of Chatterjee were divided among senior minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Sashi Panja and Babul Supriyo. While Shobandeb has been given additional duty as Parliamentary Affairs minister, Sashi Panja has been given extra charge of industry, commerce and enterprises and Babul Supriyo along with the Department of Tourism has been given Department of Information Technology and Electronics.
