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Bengal

Mamata takes oath as MLA

The MLAs from Kolkata were sworn in one by one. Trinamool Congress has bagged all the seats from Kolkata. Apart from Mamata Banerjee, four others MLAs have become ministers. They are Subrata Mukherjee, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Firhad Hakim and Sashi Panja who were elected from 
Ballygunge, Rashbehari, Kolkata Port and Shaympukur seats. Of these legislators Chattopadhyay is a new face in the ministry and will be looking after the Power department.

Partha Chatterjee, Sovan Chatterjee, Aroop Biswas, Abdur Rezzak Mollah and Manturam Pakhira along with 22 MLAs from South 24 Parganas took oath. Mayor Sovan Chatterjee and Mollah are new faces.

Chatterjee will be looking after Fire and Emergency Services, Environment and Housing. Mollah who joined TMC after being expelled from CPI(M) will be looking after the food processing and horticulture department. Interestingly, Molla used to look after this department in Jyoti Basu’s Cabinet in the early 1990s. Of 31 seats in South 24 parganas, TMC has bagged 28 seats while the Opposition got 3 seats.

Amit Mitra, Jyotipriyo Mullick, Purnendu Basu and Bratya Basu along with 23 MLAs from North 24 Parganas took oath. Of 33 seats in North 24 Parganas, TMC bagged 27 seats. Bratya Basu who was the tourism minister will be looking after the IT portfolio and the three others, namely, Mitra, Mullick and Basu will be looking after their old departments, namely, Finance, Food and Agriculture.

In Howrah, Trinamool has achieved great success where the Opposition has only one seat out of 16. Veteran Congress leader Asit Mitra defeated Tusher Seal in Amta. Apart from two old timers, Rajib Banerjee and Aroop Roy, the new face is cricketer Lakshmi Ratan Shukla. Shukla defeated Roopa Ganguly of BJP by a handsome margin.

In Hooghly, TMC has bagged 16 out of 18 seats.  Newcomer Indranil Sen who will be looking after the Information and Cultural Affairs as a minister of state was sworn in along with Asima Patra, also a minister of state from the district.

Banerjee dropped a former IPS officer Rachpal Singh who was a minister of Development and Planning in her 2011-16 cabinet and two other ministers Rabindranath Bhattachrya and Becharam Manna. The MLAs from other districts will be sworn in on Monday and Tuesday.

Biman Banerjee who also sworn in on Saturday will be the speaker while HA Safwi, a former IPS officer who was elected from Uluberia East took oath of secrecy and will be the deputy speaker.
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