Kolkata- As Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today begins her term as the three-time elected chief minister of West Bengal, she brings along a variety of faces, including that of party veterans, newcomers, women, and Muslim representatives to the West Bengal cabinet.
Mamata, who is the first-ever women chief minister to rule over the State of West Bengal, has handpicked 43 MLA's to be part of her cabinet. They have been sworn in as cabinet ministered and have been assigned their respective portfolios today in the oath-taking ceremony.
Out of the 43 ministers, 25 have previously held ministries while 18 are first-time ministers. 9 out of the 43 have been appointed as ministers of state. Amit Mitra, who has not been keeping well, and Bratya Bose who is recovering from COVID-19 attended the swearing-in ceremony virtually.
Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Sujit Bose, Chandrima Bhattacharya, and Shashi Panja, prominent TMC veterans are back as ministers in the Mamata led West Bengal cabinet.
Ex- Rajya Sabha MP Manas Bhuian who contested the Vidhan Sabha polls is also amongst the list of appointed ministers.
TMC loyalist Akhil Giri from East Midnapore and Arup Roy from Howrah, both belonging to the districts of rebel leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee respectively have been appointed ministers.
Santhali cinema megastar Birbaha Hansda, a first-time contestant has also been appointed as a minister of state.
Humayun Kabir, former IPS officer is also on the list of appointed ministers.
The swearing-in ceremony for the West Bengal Cabinet took place today at 10:30 AM.
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday sanctioned the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) request to prosecute Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Madan Mitra, and Sovan Chatterjee in the Narada sting operation case. Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim have been sworn into the Mamata-led cabinet today. Mr. Mitra is currently serving as a TMC MLA after emerging victorious in the recently concluded assembly polls while Sovan Chatterjee was an ex-TMC leader who quit TMC to join BJP in 2019. He later quit the BJP a few days before the West Bengal Assembly results were declared. The sting operation tape which was released in 2016 were allegedly filmed in 2014 when all four were ministers.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankar condemned the ruling TMC government in his address for showing no accountability for the post-poll incidents of violence and called them to restore the credibility of their governance in the state by identifying and punishing the "culprits who have chosen to tarnish our democratic fabric."
"If your vote becomes the cause of your death or property destruction, it signals the end of democracy," he said.
Mamata Banerjee retaliated by saying that most of the cases of violence reported were due to the circulation of fake news and also remarked that the Election Commission was in charge of law and order when the alleged clashes took place.