9 New Ministers Inducted in West Bengal Cabinet, Babul Supriyo Gets IT, Tourism

Nine new ministers, including former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Babul Supriyo, have been sworn-in amid the expansion of the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal Cabinet on Wednesday, 3 August. Apart from Supriyo, the other MLAs who took the oath as ministers include Snehasis Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmick, Udayan Guha, Pradip Mazumder, Tajmul Hossain, Satyajit Barman. Birbaha Hansda and Biplab Roy Chowdhury, as per news agency ANI.Hansda and Chowdhury were sworn-in as ministers having independent charge.This comes days after the arrest of senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate on the charge of alleged corruption in the recruitment of teachers in government-sponsored and aided schools.Chatterjee, who had been sacked from the TMC and relieved of all his ministerial duties following his arrest, had several key portfolios in the state Cabinet, including industry and commerce, and parliamentary affairs.Partha Chatterjee: Once Mamata's Go-To Man, Now Suspended from TMC Over SSC CaseHere is the list of the new West Bengal Cabinet:Mamata BanerjeeChief MinisterHome and Hill AffairsPersonal and Administrative ReformsHealth and Family WelfareLand and Land ReformsRefugee Relief and RehabilitationInformation and Cultural AffairsPlanning and StatisticsProgramme Monitoring Manas Ranjan BhuniaWater Resources Investigation and DevelopmentEnvironment Moloy GhatakLaw DepartmentJudicial DepartmentLabor Aroop BiswasPowerYouth ServicesHousing Ujjwal BiswasScience and TechnologyBio-Technology Firhad HakimUrban Development and Municipal Affairs Sobhandeb ChattopadhyayAgricultureParliamentary Affairs Pulak RoyPublic Health Engineering and Public Works Department Shashi PanjaWomen and Child Development and Social WelfareIndustry, Commerce and EnterprisesPublic Enterprises and Industrial Reconstruction Biplab MitraConsumer Affairs Becharam MannaMoSAgricultural Marketing (Independent Charge)Panchayats and Rural Development Akhil GiriMoSCorrectional Administration (Independent Charge) Indranil SenMoSTechnical Education, Training and Skill Development (Independent Charge)Information and Cultural Affairs Srikant MahatoMoSConsumer Affairs Birbaha HansdaMoSSelf-Help Group and Self Employment (Independent Charge)Forests Babul SupriyoInformation TechnologyElectronicsTourism Snehasis ChakrabortyTransport Partha BhowmickIrrigation and Waterways Udayan GuhaNorth Bengal Development Pradeep MajumderPanchayats and Rural Development Biplab Roy ChowdhuryMosFisheries (Independent Charge) Tajmul HossainMosMSME and Textiles Satyajit BarmanMoSEducationSupriyo had resigned from the BJP and switched to the TMC after being dropped from the Union Cabinet in 2021. Currently, he is the TMC MLA from the Ballygunge constituency.Speaking about the reshuffle earlier, Banerjee had said, "We don't have plan to dissolve the whole ministry and form a new one. Yes, there will be a reshuffle. We lost ministers, Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande. Partha is in jail, so all their work has to be done. Not possible for me to handle it alone."Responding to Banerjee's announcement, Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar claimed that it was "just an eyewash.""With the corruption cases that have come to light, people of Bengal have understood that it's a government of thieves and thieves are sitting in the Cabinet. Such a decision is being taken to divert attention," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.Banerjee had also announced that the number of districts in the state would be increased to 30."Earlier there were 23 districts in Bengal, now it has been increased to 30. The seven new districts include Sunderban, Ichhamati, Ranaghat, Bishnupur, Jangipur, Behrampur, and one more district will be named in Basirhat," she said.Babul Supriyo: The Man Who Has 'Quit Politics' But Not His Lok Sabha Seat(With inputs from ANI.)