(L-R) Satyajit Burman, Snehasis Chakraborty, Birbaha Hansda, Tajmul Hossain, Partha Bhowmik, Mamata Banerjee, La Ganeshan, Babul Supriya, Pradip Majumdar, Udayan Guha, Biplab Roy Chowdhury after the oath-taking ceremony as ministers at Raj Bhavan , in Kolkata. (Express photo by Partha Paul)West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reshuffled her cabinet on Wednesday, inducting eight new faces. Among the new ministers to take oath is Babul Supriyo, former Union minister and BJP leader. Apart from Supriyo, district-level TMC leaders — Snehashish Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha and Pradip Majumder — got ministerial berths. In a small programme at Raj Bhavan attended by Chief Minister Banerjee and others, Governor La Ganeshan administered oath to the new ministers.
After the five minister-in-charge had sworn in, another four district leaders — Birbaha Hansda, Biplab Rouchowdhury, Tajmul Hossain and Satyajit Burman — took oath as Ministers of State. Hansda and Biplab Roychowdhury became Minister of State with independent charge. According to sources, Birbaha Hansda, the MLA of Jhargram, is being groomed to be the face of the Santhal community in the TMC. Rajbanshi leader Satyajit Burman, MLA of Hemtabad, also became a minister in the state cabinet.
Supriyo, after the BJP’s defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections, had announced that he would quit politics and also resign as Lok Sabha MP. However, on September 18, 2021, he joined the TMC in presence of Abhishek Banerjee. He was also elected as MLA from Ballygunj, which had fallen vacant after the demise of veteran TMC leader and minister Subrata Mukherjee.
A senior leader of TMC said, “Mamata Banerjee wanted that the average age of the new cabinet should be younger. That is why comparatively younger faces — Babul Supriya, Partha Bhowmik and Snehashish Chakraborty — found berths in the new cabinet.”
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On the other hand, a section of TMC leaders were of the opinion that Mamata’s cabinet in the last eleven years was always dominated by leaders from Kolkata, but this time, district leaders have been given equal importance. “Partha Bhowmik, Udayan Guha, Snehashish Chakraborty, Biplab Roy Chowdhury, Satyajit Burman, Tajmul Hossain all are leaders from districts. Although Pradip Majumder is a resident of Kolkata, he too is MLA from West Burdwan,” said a senior leader of TMC.
He also said, “Our second in command and All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee wanted to bring young faces in the new cabinet and that will be implemented. He also wanted to bring leaders like Babul Supriyo, Partha Bhowmik in the forefront.”
Banerjee had announced the cabinet reshuffle on Monday after carrying out a major overhaul in her party. She had said that four-five new faces would be inducted into the new cabinet, while a similar number of members of the present cabinet would be utilised for party work.
The rejig is being seen as an attempt at an image makeover by the party hit by the jobs scam probe. Partha 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 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.
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First published on: 03-08-2022 at 11:34:55 am