Bengal’s ‘initially small’ Cabinet almost ready
Chief minister-designate Mamata Banerjee who will take oath of office on Friday, has almost finalised her Cabinet. Sources said Amit Mitra may get finance, Partha Chatterjee industry, Purnendu Bose labour and Rabi Ranjan Chatterjee education. Advocate Biman Banerjee or former high court judge Noore Alam Chowdhury may be appointed the Speaker of the Assembly.
After being formally elected as the legislature party leader by the newly-elected Trinamul Congress MLAs on Sunday, Ms Banerjee announced that hers would be a small Cabinet. Initially she would announce only a few names but later there would be an expansion of the Cabinet.
A Trinamul Congress minister claimed that it would be a big challenge for Ms Banerjee to keep the Cabinet small. “So many talented people have been elected that picking and choosing a handful of them would be a big challenge for Didi,” he said. Some other names which are likely to figure in Ms Banerjee’s Cabinet are those of former IAS officer Manish Gupta who defeated chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, theatre personality Bratya Basu, former mayor Subrata Mukherjee, party president Subrata Bakshi, former CBI joint director Upen Biswas and prominent Muslim faces of the party Javed Khan and Firhad Hakim.
Ms Banerjee is keen on giving representation to women, Muslims, SCs, STs, youth and legislators from Jangalmahal and North Bengal in her Cabinet. “From six districts in North Bengal, Gautam Deb, Rabi Ghosh, Argha Roy Pradhan, Rudra Nath Bhattacharya, Shankar Chakraborty and Savitri Mitra are in the reckoning,” the junior minister revealed.
On Sunday, after she was elected legislature party leader, Ms Banerjee announced the election of Partha Chatterjee as deputy minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay as the party’s chief whip and Jyotirpriya Mullick as the treasurer in the Assembly.
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