Forty-three leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) were sworn-in as ministers in the West Bengal government on Monday, 10 May, more than a week after the party won a resounding majority in the state Assembly elections with 213 of the 292 seats.
According to reports, while 25 of these are incumbents, 18 are new faces. The latter category includes cricketer Manoj Tiwary, ex-IPS officer Humayun Kabir, Akhil Giri and Biplab Mitra.
The incumbents who will continue as ministers include Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Amit Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, among others.
Two leaders – Amit Mitra and Bratya Bose – took the oath virtually on Monday. While the former suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the latter had contracted COVID-19 and is now recovering.
Among those who have not been included in the Cabinet are Tapas Roy, Nirmal Maji and Ashish Bandyopadhyay. Out of 43, nine of those who have been sworn-in have been designated as ministers of state (MoS).
WB Guv Sanctions Prosecution Against 2 Ministers Before Swearing-In
Significantly, ahead of the oath-taking, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had sanctioned CBI prosecution against four leaders, including two who were sworn-in on Monday – Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee – in connection with the Narada case. The other two are Madan Mitra and Sovan Chatterjee.
Speaking to news agency ANI about the move, Firhad Hakim said, "I believe in the judiciary, and I am sure we will get a clean chit. It is good that it is going to the court now."
Mamata Banerjee took oath as Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time on Wednesday, 5 May. While her party won 213 seats in the Assembly, the BJP came in at second place with 77 seats. The Left-Congress-ISF alliance got just one seat, and an Independent won another.
(With inputs from ANI, NDTV and The Indian Express.)
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