Shashi Panja likely to be inducted in Mamata cabinet
27 Dec 2013 5:18 AM IST
Shashi Panja’s name as a minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet has been doing the rounds from the very beginning - ever since she made a mark in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation ( KMC).
Eyebrows were raised when Mamata did not include her in the 43-member Cabinet back in May 2011.
Senior Trinamool leaders however refused to comment on the impending Cabinet reshuffle. ‘Only 20 minutes have been allotted for this. Anything can happen’, said a senior Trinamool MP. Panja was unavailable for comment.
Panja was seen visiting the chief minister towards the end of 2012 and was shortlisted to be inducted in the January cabinet reshuffle.
The chief minister holds the demanding health portfolio and wanted to share the responsibility, considering the crib deaths in hospitals that were making headlines almost every day. Panja, a doctor, would have been the ideal MoS, health. But when the time came, Panja apparently couldn’t be reached as she was away in North Bengal. So, Chandrima Bhattacharya was made minister of state for health.
Panja could not make it the next time also since her name was struck off at the Eleventh hour because agriculture minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya wanted to ask why he was being dropped.
Mamata seems to have changed her mind after the meeting as she didn’t want to be seen as getting rid of an ‘honest schoolteacher’ from Singur ahead of the panchayat polls. But this time around, Panja is likely to make an entry, said sources.
Eyebrows were raised when Mamata did not include her in the 43-member Cabinet back in May 2011.
Senior Trinamool leaders however refused to comment on the impending Cabinet reshuffle. ‘Only 20 minutes have been allotted for this. Anything can happen’, said a senior Trinamool MP. Panja was unavailable for comment.
Panja was seen visiting the chief minister towards the end of 2012 and was shortlisted to be inducted in the January cabinet reshuffle.
The chief minister holds the demanding health portfolio and wanted to share the responsibility, considering the crib deaths in hospitals that were making headlines almost every day. Panja, a doctor, would have been the ideal MoS, health. But when the time came, Panja apparently couldn’t be reached as she was away in North Bengal. So, Chandrima Bhattacharya was made minister of state for health.
Panja could not make it the next time also since her name was struck off at the Eleventh hour because agriculture minister Rabindranath Bhattacharya wanted to ask why he was being dropped.
Mamata seems to have changed her mind after the meeting as she didn’t want to be seen as getting rid of an ‘honest schoolteacher’ from Singur ahead of the panchayat polls. But this time around, Panja is likely to make an entry, said sources.
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