In Mamata's cabinet expansion, a big reward for former BJP minister Babul Supriyo

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reshuffled her cabinet on Wednesday inducting nine ministers. In a low-key programme held at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata attended by Chief Minister Banerjee and other party leaders, Governor La Ganeshan gave oath to the new ministers.

The nine ministers to take oath were Babul Supriyo, Snehashis Chakraborty, Partha Bhowmick, Udayan Guha, Pradip Mazumder, Tajmul Hossain, Satyajit Barman. Birbaha Hansda and Biplab Roy Chowdhury were sworn in as Ministers with independent charges

On Monday, TMC chief Mamata carried out an overhaul in her party and announced a cabinet reshuffle adding four-five new faces, while a similar number of members of the present cabinet were to be utilised for party work.

The CM reportedly wanted the average age of the new cabinet to be ‘younger’ which is reflected in the choice of new inductees.

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The induction of Supriyo, the former BJP leader and Union Minister, into Mamata’s cabinet has drawn the most attention given his roller coaster ride in politics - from being a popular playback singer to BJP’s poster boy in West Bengal to joining the TMC government.

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.

The reshuffle comes at a time when the party finds itself mired in the school jobs scam following senior TMC leader and minister Partha Chatterjee’s arrest by the Enforcement Directorate.