Bengal: Govt, ruling party set for a rejig amid scam probe

The likely rejig is being seen as an attempt at an image makeover by the party hit by the jobs scam probe.

Chatterjee, who was the virtual number two both in the TMC and the government, was stripped of all ministerial responsibilities and suspended from the party following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week and the recovery of around Rs 50 crore from flats of his associate Arpita Mukherjee.

Chatterjee held five key ministries, including industry, commerce and enterprises and parliamentary affairs.

Senior TMC leaders said the influence of Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee might grow in the new cabinet and senior ministers like Malay Ghatak may get more responsibilities. Also, some leaders considered close to Mamata may be demoted, it is learnt.

The state government has advanced the cabinet meeting for Monday.

A senior TMC leader said, “It is likely that some new minister takes oath even before the cabinet meeting. But we still have no confirmation of this.”

Besides, sources said there was no plan of oath-taking in the Raj Bhawan on Monday.

CM Mamata Banerjee had indicated on Thursday that a cabinet reshuffle will take place shortly. Some senior party leaders claimed that overhauling the cabinet was being planned for quite some time, but Chatterjee’s arrest hastened the process.

With inputs PTI