Besides the experienced ministers including Amit Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Jyotipriya Mallick, Purnendu Bose and Rajib Banerjee, a set of new and young faces like Suvendu Adhikari, Indranil Sen and Lakshmi Ratan Shukla have been inducted this time.
Like previous term, Banerjee herself has retained the Home, Land and Land Reforms, Health and Family Welfare, Information and Cultural Affairs, Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Minorities Affairs and Madrasah Education and Hill Affairs departments.
Amit Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, Partha Chaterjee, Firhad Hakim, Jyotipriya Mallick, Sadhan Pandey, Purnendu Bose, Chandranath Sinha and Rajib Banerjee will also continue with their older portfolios. Mitra will be continuing as the Commerce and Industries, Finance and Excise minister.
Mukherjee will continue heading the Panchayat department with Shyamal Santra coming in as the minister of state (MoS) of the department. Hakim, Mallick, Pandey, Bose and Sinha will be continuing as Urban Development, Food Supplies, Consumer Affairs, Agriculture and Fisheries departments respectively.
Partha Chatterjee will continue as the state Education Minister. Rajib Banerjee, who has won from Domjur Assembly constituency in Howrah with a record margin, has been made the irrigation minister again.
Among the new ministers Mayor Sovan Chatterjee has become the minister of the Fire and Emergency Services Department along with Housing and Environment.
Banerjee said that Chatterjee can tackle these departments well as these are interlinked with the work of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Javed Khan, who had been the fire minister in the first term of the Trinamool Congress government, will continue with Disaster Management and Civil Defence department.
It may be recalled that Banerjee had announced at Nandigram that Suvendu Adhikari would be a key minister of her cabinet. Adhikary has been made the state’s Transport Minister.
Abdur Rejjak Mollah has become the Food Processing and Horticulture Minister. It may be mentioned that the veteran politician had been in-charge of the same departments in the Cabinet of Jyoti Basu.
The Information Technology department will be headed by Bratya Basu and Gautam Deb, who was in-charge of the North Bengal Development department, has become the new Tourism Minister in place of Basu. Rabindranath Ghosh has become the new North Bengal Development department.
Aroop Biswas will continue as the state’s Youth Affairs Minister with that of the added portfolio of Sports and Public Works Department Minister.
Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, the first time MLA from Howrah North Assembly constituency, has become the MoS Youth and Sports departments. Another young face who is going to play a crucial role in the next five years is Indranil Sen, who has become the MoS Information and Cultural Affairs Department.
Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has been made the new Power Minister. Moloy Ghatak will handle the portfolio of Law Minister along with his previous Labour department. Churamuni Mahato is the new Backward Classes Welfare minister.
Both the former Law Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, Former Power minister Manish Gupta, former Backward Classes Welfare Minister Upendranath Biswas and Shankar Chakraborty those have lost the election will be working along with the new ministers to expedite the work of the departments.
Abani Juardar is the in-charge of Correctional Administration and Refugee departments.
Arup Roy, who was the Agriculture Marketing minister, has become the state Co-operation Minister and Tapan Dasgupta, the MLA from Hooghly district, has become the new Agriculture Marketing Minister. Soumen Mahapatra is the minster of Water Resources Department.
Shantiram Mahato is the Paschimanchal Unnayan Affairs Minister and Ashis Banerjee is the Science and Technology and Bio-Technology Departments Minister.
Swapan Debnath is the MoS with independent charge of Animal Resources Development department and he is also the MoS of Small Scale Enterprises and Land and Land Reforms department. Dr Shashi Panja will continue as the MoS with independent charge of Child Development and Women Development and Social Welfare departments.
Manturam Pakhira is the Sunderban Affairs department. Siddiqulla Chowdhury has become the MoS for Mass Education Extension and Library Services department.
Giyasuddin Mollah is the MoS of the Minority Affairs department and Asima Patra is the new MoS for Technical Education Department. Biman Banerjee will be the Speaker again while HA Safwi,
who was the Correctional Administration department’s minister in the first term of Trinamool Congress government, will be the Deputy Speaker.