Mamata keeps Home and Health portfolios, Suvendu Adhikari elected Leader of Opposition
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The Chief Minister will also be in charge of Land and Land Reforms, Information and Cultural Affairs and North Bengal Development departments.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has kept the crucial departments of Home and Health Department in the allocation of portfolios after 43 Ministers were sworn in to the State’s Council of Ministers earlier on Monday. Along with these two crucial portfolios, Ms. Banerjee will also be in charge of Land and Land Reforms, Information and Cultural Affairs and North Bengal Development departments.
In another significant development Suvendu Adhikari, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Nandigram was elected Leader of Opposition in the Assembly. The announcement was made by Union Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad at a meeting of the BJP MLAs.
Amit Mitra has been allocated Finance Department and Partha Chatterjee will be allocated Industry and Commerce Department. Rathin Ghosh will be new Minister of Food and Supplies Department and Gholam Rabanni Minority Affairs and Madrasah Education. Senior Minister Subrata Mukherjee will be in charge of Panchayat and Rural Development department. Bratya Basu will be in charge School and Higher Education and Firhad Hakim will be in charge of Transport and Housing Department. Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has been appointed Minister of Agriculture while Bankim Chandra Hazra has been appointed Minister for Sunderban Affairs.
Ratna De Nag will hold the portfolio Environment, Science and Technology and Sujit Bose Fire and Emergency Services. Among the new faces Sabina Yeasmin has been appointed Minister of State for Irrigation and Waterways, Birbaha Hansda Minister of State for Forest. Former cricketer Manoj Tewari will be Minister of State for Sports.
After 43 Ministers were sworn in earlier in the day at the Raj Bhavan, Ms. Banerjee announced that two new Ministers Asima Patra and Partha Bhowmick will be sworn in later.
Nirmal Ghosh will be appointed Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress in the Assembly and Tapas Roy will function as the deputy Chief Whip. Biman Banerjee has already been appointed Speaker and Asish Banerjee will be appointed as Deputy Speaker.
Later in the day the Chief Minister held a meeting with representatives of different religious groups and urged them to take steps to contain the COVID-19 surge. Ms. Banerjee welcomed the initiative of Imams of Kolkata not to hold prayers at Red Road on the occasion of upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr this year because of outbreak of pandemic.
