Daijiworld Media Network - Kolkata
Kolkata, Jun 1: The West Bengal government on Monday expanded its Council of Ministers, with 35 BJP legislators taking oath at a ceremony held at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata. The cabinet expansion comes just over three weeks after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari assumed office following the BJP's victory in the Assembly elections.
Among those inducted were 13 Cabinet Ministers: Deepak Barman, Tapas Roy, Dr Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Kumar Oraon, Arjun Singh, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Kalyan Chakraborty, Ajay Poddar, Dr Saradwat Mukherjee, Dudh Kumar Mondal and Anup Kumar Das. The government is yet to announce the portfolios assigned to the newly inducted ministers.
With the latest expansion, the strength of the state cabinet has risen to 19 members, including Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari had taken oath on May 9 along with five ministers—Agnimitra Paul, Dilip Ghosh, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtaniya and Khudiram Tudu.
In addition to the Cabinet Ministers, three BJP legislators were sworn in as Ministers of State with Independent Charge. They are Indranil Khan, Malati Rava Roy and Rajesh Mamahato.
Nineteen other MLAs joined the government as Ministers of State. The newly inducted ministers include Joel Murmu, Hare Krishna Bera, Anandamay Barman, Ashok Dinda, Nadiar Chand Bauri, Vishal Lama, Shantanu Pramanik, Moumita Biswas Mishra, Umesh Ray, Purnima Chakravarty, Kaushik Chowdhury, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami, Amiya Kisku, Kalita Majhi, Gargi Das Ghosh, Biraj Biswas, Dipankar Jana and Sumana Sarkar.
The swearing-in ceremony commenced at 11 a.m. with Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal announcing the names of the ministers. The oath was administered by Governor R.N. Ravi in the presence of senior government officials, legislators and party leaders.
Following the ceremony, the newly sworn-in ministers are scheduled to proceed to the state secretariat, Nabanna, where a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Adhikari has been convened later in the day. The meeting is expected to finalise and announce the allocation of portfolios to the new members of the government.
The cabinet expansion is seen as a significant step in strengthening the newly formed BJP administration as it prepares to implement its governance agenda across the state.