Mamata ministry expanded, four new faces inducted

Kolkata: The 31-month-old ministry of Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamul Congress government was expanded on Thursday with the induction of four new faces.

Senior leaders Tapas Roy, Sujit Bose, Ratna Ghosh (Kar) and Nirmal Majhi were sworn in as ministers of state by governor K N Tripathi at the Raj Bhavan in the presence of Banerjee and her cabinet colleagues.

With this, the strength of the ministry increased from 40 to 44, which is the maximum for 294-seat Assembly in West Bengal.

Four berths had got vacant following resignation of former Kolkata mayor and fire services minister Sovan Chatterjee and removal of former minister Abani Joardar on health reason, and dropping of two ministers James Kujur and Churamani Mahato after the BJP made a mark in tribal areas in the last Panchayat elections.

With this, the party also encouraged these senior leaders ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Of the four new faces, Roy will be the minister of state for planning and statistics (independent charge) and parliamentary affairs, and Bose will be minister of state for fire services (Independent Charge).

Ratna Ghosh (Kar) will take over as minister of state for MSME, while Nirmal Majhi will be the minister of state for labour, as per the announcement by Banerjee after the swearing-in.

Banerjee also effected a minor reshuffle.

The minister of state for health, land and land reforms Chandrima Bhattacharya has been given additional charge of housing department (independent charge).

This is Trinamul Congress’ second term in office after winning the 2016 Assembly election in the state.

Its first term began after the win of the party by throwing out of power the Left regime.