Following the massive scam by one of his senior ministers Partha Chatterjee and his subsequent sacking, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday rejigged her cabinet with 9 new faces. Singer-turned politician Babul Supriyo, who crossed over from the BJP to the TMC, was among leaders sworn in as ministers.
Apart from Supriyo, Snehasis Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmick, Udayan Guha, Pradip Mazumder, Tajmul Hossain, and Satyajit Barman took oath as Cabinet ministers. Birbaha Hansda and Biplab Roy Chowdhury were sworn in as state Ministers with independent charge. Supriyo earlier has been a union minister in the Narendra Modi-led central government. However, he left the BJP to join the TMC.
This was the first cabinet reshuffle since Mamata Banerjee again stormed to power in the West Bengal after the 2021 assembly polls.
The reshuffle also comes in the backdrop of the removal of senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee from the cabinet. Chatterjee was relieved of ministerial duties after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the masssive SSC recruitment scam case.
Chatterjee was minister-in-charge of the departments of industry, commerce and enterprises, IT and electronics, parliamentary affairs and public enterprises, and industrial reconstruction. CM Banerjee had taken charge of the departments held by Chatterjee last week.
Chief Minister Banerjee had earlier said that there will be 4-5 new faces.