New faces to be inducted in TMC’s Cabinet of ministers

Tapas Roy is likely to be nominated as a minister. Tapas Roy was a councillor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) between 1985-90. The CPI(M) had unleashed a reign of terror to defeat him in 1990. 

He defeated Dr Abirlal Mukherjee. As three ministers have been defeated in North 24 Parganas, his chance of getting a berth is very high. Currently he is the chairman of Calcutta State Transport Corporation (CSTC).

Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay is likely to be a minister. A veteran leader Chattopadhyay was the chief whip between 2011-16. Chattopadhyay is a well known labour leader having mass contact.Mohua Moitra who was elected from Karimpur which is considered to be a red bastion is likely to get a place in the new Cabinet. Moitra defeated her CPI(M) rival Samarendranath Ghosh by over 15,000 votes. Another probabale name for ministership is Prabir Ghoshal.

Siddiqulla Chowdhury is likely to get a seat in Mamata Banerjee’s Cabinet along with Abdur Rezzak Mollah. Mollah a veteran CPI(M) leader had joined TMC last year.

He was expelled from CPI(M) for criticising Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Nirupam Sen and held them responsible for party’s poll debacle in 2011. Mollah was the Land and Land Reforms minister.

Though Trinamool Congress has come back with 211 seats, it has lost nine of its ministers. The party chief has expressed her concern over the matter and has ordered inquiry by the party.

The ministers who failed to retain their seats are: Manish Gupta, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Upen Biswas, Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury, Sabitri Mitra, Abdul Karim Chowdhury, Shyamapada Mukherjee, Shankar Chakraborty and Madan Mitra. Thus, TMC will have to appoint nine new faces as ministers.

North 24 Parganas has lost three of its ministers. They are Madan Mitra, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Upen Biswas. However, it has retained four ministers there. They are Jyotipriyo Mullick, Bratya Basu, Amit Mitra and Purnendu Basu.

This is for the first time when there will be no minister from Malda as both the ministers Sabitri Mitra and Krishnendu Chowdhury have lost and party could not open its account in the district. Political observers said Nihar Ghosh who was elected as an independent candidate from Islampur might join Trinamool and might represent the district as a minister. 

Jatu Lahiri is likely to be elected as the pro tem speaker and the MLAs will be sworn in on 28 and 30 May. Biman Banerjee may become the Speaker and Sonali Guha who was the deputy speaker may be dropped.