Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet will be sworn in at Raj Bhavan at 10:45 am.
Kolkata:
Forty-three ministers will be sworn in today as part of Mamata Banerjee’s team as she begins her third term as Chief Minister of West Bengal.
The team has 25 incumbent faces and 18 new ones. Out of 43, nine will be ministers of state.
Two ministers will be sworn in virtually, Amit Mitra, as he has not been keeping well and Bratya Bose who is recovering from COVID-19.
Veterans Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Sujit Bose, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Shashi Panja are back as ministers.
Manas Bhuian, who was Rajya Sabha MP and fought the Assembly poll this time, is in.
So is Akhil Giri, a loyalist from East Midnapore, turncoat Suvendu Adhikari’s district, and Arup Roy from Howrah, the district of yet another rebel leader Rajib Banerjee.
Birbaha Hansda, a star of Santhali cinema who contested for the first time, is a minister of state.
Former IPS officer Humayun Kabir is on the list too as minister.
The swearing-in will take place at Raj Bhavan at 10:45 am and some awkward moments are likely.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has just sanctioned the CBI prosecution of four people in the Narada sting operation case, including two of the ministers being sworn in – Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim.
The two others are Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee. Mr Mitra has won the assembly election and is now an MLA. Mr Chatterjee had quit Trinamool and joined the BJP last year. He quit the BJP days before the just-concluded assembly polls.
The governor and Mamata Banerjee have sparred ever since May 5 when she was sworn in over reports of post-poll violence in the state.
The governor held Mamata Banerjee responsible. She said a lot of the violence was fake news and that the clashes that did take place happened when the Election Commission was in charge of law and order.