‘Three new ministers to irritate TMC’

The UPA Government should have proven its majority in the Parliament before making such a huge cabinet reshuffle, senior minister in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet Subrata Mukherjee said on Sunday. He also expressed his dissatisfaction that West Bengal got only three ministers of state and no cabinet berth as the outcome of Sunday's reshuffle.

‘The UPA's move has political motive. Everybody knows that ministers of state hardly have any powers.They have inducted three ministers of state only to irritate the Trinamool Congress’, Mukherjee said. The senior Trinamool minister also expected an upscaling of political clashes in the state in the run up to the Panchayat elections due in the year-end as a result of this move.

The induction of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Deepa Dasmunshi and A H Khan Choudhury is expected to energise the state Cong since all of them are known for their strong anti-Mamata stand. ‘Adhir is a very positive person and I'm sure that all three of them will bring a lot of development to Bengal’, said a senior party leader from North Bengal.

While Adhir gets Railways, Deepa gets Urban Development and Khan Chowdhury gets health and family planning, albeit as ministers of state.