Kolkata: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Swapan Dasgupta, Tapas Roy and Shankar Ghosh were among the 35 legislators who took oath as ministers on Monday as West Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari expanded his cabinet, taking the total strength of the council of ministers to 41.
A carefully-crafted balance, based on geographical, ethnic and gender considerations, characterised the expanded council of ministers of the first BJP-helmed government in the state.
Governor R N Ravi administered the oath of office to the legislators at a programme held at Lok Bhavan here in the presence of Adhikari, the existing ministers of his cabinet and senior bureaucrats of the state administration.
While 13 BJP MLAs were sworn in as cabinet ministers, three took oath as ministers of state (Independent Charge).
and 19 others were inducted in the council as ministers of state.
“The distribution of portfolios for the ministers will take place on Wednesday during a meeting which will be chaired by the CM at the secretariat,” cabinet minister Tapas Roy said.
With five cabinet ministers, besides Adhikari, having already taken oath on May 9, the total strength of the state’s council of ministers stood at three short of the Constitution-mandated optimal count of 44 in the 294-member state assembly.
The inductees also represented the cross-section of Bengal’s society – with doctors, academics, journalists and even those who worked in blue-collar jobs, such as house helps, before getting into politics, being offered berths in Adhikari’s council.
The BJP inducted Sharadwat Mukherjee, an oncologist who won the Bidhhannagar seat, and Kalyan Chakraborty, a professor from Khardaha, as cabinet ministers.
Another oncologist from Behala Paschim, Indranil Khan, was sworn in as minister of state (Independent Charge), while Kalita Majhi, who worked as a house help before foraying into politics, was awarded the position of minister of state.
Journalists-turned-politicians Swapan Dasgupta, who won the prestigious Rashbehari seat in south Kolkata, and Jagannath Chattopadhyay from Suri in Birbhum were also awarded cabinet berths.
Newly elected BJP MLAs Dudh Kumar Mondal, Deepak Burman, Manoj Oraon, Gouri Shankar Ghosh and Arjun Singh were among those who took oath as cabinet ministers.
Legislators of BJP Rajesh Mahata and Malati Rava Roy were sworn in as ministers of state (Independent Charge) in the government.
Among the ministers of state who were administered the oath were Joyel Murmu, Ashok Dinda, Anandamoy Burman, Koushik Chowdhury, Gargi Das Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami and Sumana Sarkar. BJP MLAs Santanu Pramanik, Purnima Chakraborty and Umesh Rai were also sworn in as ministers of state.
Considering the presence of minister Nisith Pramanik, a Rajbanshi leader from the SC-reserved Mathabhanga seat in Cooch Behar, already in the cabinet, three new ministers – Deepak Burman from Falakata, Shankar Ghosh from Siliguri and Manoj Kumar Oraon from Kumargram in Alipurduar – “ took oath in the government’s expanded cabinet from north Bengal.
