Mamata announces 17 new faces for Cabinet

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced the names of 17 new faces, including Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, to be sworn in as ministers on Friday.

She met Governor K N Tripathi at Raj Bhavan on Thursday afternoon and submitted the list of ministers. Banerjee was accompanied by the state Chief Secretary Basudeb Bandopadhyay.

Chatterjee will continue as the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation as there are precedents. Krishnendu Narayan Chowdhury was the chairman of English Bazar Municipality and the minister at the same time.

Veteran TMC leader and government chief whip Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will also be sworn in as a minister. Indranil Sen who won from Chandannagore will be a minister along with Laxmi Ratan Shukla who defeated BJP Mohila Morcha president Rupa Ganguly from Howrah North constituency. 

Abdur Rezzak Molla, the expelled CPI(M) leader who was the Land and Land Reforms minister in Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s Cabinet is also getting a berth. Mollah was expelled from CPI(M) after he had criticised Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Nirupam Sen and held them responsible for the poll debacle of the party in 2011.

Siddiqulla Chowdhury will also be sworn in as a minister on Friday. Mamata Banerjee had attended Chowdhury’s meeting in Esplanade and Chowdhury had expressed his desire to contest the election.

Rabindranath Ghosh, who was the key person in TMC’s success in Cooch Behar has also been nominated as a minister. Ashima Patra and Sandhyarani Tudu are among the new faces to be sworn in as ministers. Zakir Hossain, who was elected from Jangipur in Murshidabad, will also get a ministerial berth. Hossain had put up a stiff fight against Congress in the area. Abani Mohan Joardar, former IPS officer, who won from Krishnanagar North seat will be a new face in the ministry. Joardar had also won in 2011.

Bacchu Hansda who was elected from South Dinajpur has been rewarded with a seat in the ministry. Goal Rabbani, who won the Goalpokhar seat in North Dinajpur, will be a minister on Friday. James Kujur, a former IPS officer from Alipurduar, will also get a berth as the minister.

Banerjee said all MLAs in her party were competent of becoming ministers. The ministry has been made in such a way that there was representation from each district. She regretted that as there were no MLAs from Malda, no one could be made the minister.