Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday unveiled her third Cabinet retaining almost her entire team of Ministers — from the previous Ministry —while at the same time drafting in a bevy of newfaces like cricketer Manoj Tiwari, tribal actress Birbaha Hansda and Akhil Giri a veteran MLA from East Midnapore that houses Nandigram.
Giri is known for his daggers-drawn chemistry with Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari a former pointsman of the Chief Minister who defected to the BJP a few months ago and defeated Banerjee by a wafer-thin margin.
Forty three Ministers were sworn in at a toned down ceremony in the Throne Room of Raj Bhavan. The ruling Trinamool Congress roared back to power with two-third majority leaving the BJP back by a huge margin.
While the Chief Minister retained the crucial Home, Health, North Bengal and Cultural Affairs departments she did some reshuffling in the portfolios of her other senior colleagues bringing senior Minister and TMC general secretary back as the Industry Minister.
The TMC Government had to digest massive criticism for failing to bring in investment in its decade-long rule of Bengal. Another Minister Bratya Basu a dramatist and a prominent intellectual has been redrafted as the Education Minister. Basu had been removed from the ministry several years ago. Both Basu who has been recuperating from corona infection and Finance Minister Amit Mitra --- suffering from COPD) were sworn in virtually from their residences.
Veterans Subrata Mukherjee, Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Sujit Bose, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Shashi Panja are back as ministers too with Mukherjee getting the Panchayat portfolio and Hakim a former Kolkata Mayor given the Housing and Urban Development department.
Incidentally Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who has been quite critical of the new TMC Government for allegedly ignoring the ongoing post-poll violence in the State on Sunday sanctioned the prosecution of Mukherjee, Hakim, Madan Mitra a TMC MLA and former Minister and Sovan Chatterjee a former member of Mamata Banerjee Cabinet —who left the TMC to join the BJP before leaving the saffron party too. The CBI had sought the Governor’s permission to prosecute them in the Narada payoff case.
Sitting Rajya Sabha MP Manas Bhuniya has also been drafted as a Cabinet Minister alongside Soumen Mahapatra, Jyotipriya Mullick and Javed Khan. Former IPS officer Humayun Kabir, Ghulam Rabbani, Siddiqullah Chowdhury and Siuli Saha have also been made ministers.
Soon after the swearing-in ceremony the Chief Minister said that her Government’s first priority would be to fight the corona crisis even as she hit out at the Centre for ignoring the situation. questioning the export of vaccines at a time when India did not have its own quota Banerjee said that the Centre should make alterantive arrangements for doses immediately even if it meant allowing other concerns to manufacture the medicines.
Attacking the Centre for sending central team to visit the alleged violence-hit areas of the State Banerjee said “at a time when the country is fighting a pandemic here are some people busy doing politics sending central teams to states.”
She wondered “why this central team is going to BJP families only and why they are not going to other victims if any … this team has been sent to create violence in the State.”