Kolkata, June 01: West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday expanded his government as 35 BJP legislators took oath as ministers at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata, over three weeks after the party formed its first government in the state following the Assembly elections.
The cabinet expansion included 13 Cabinet Ministers, three Ministers of State with independent charge, and 19 Ministers of State. However, the allocation of portfolios is yet to be announced.
The 13 newly inducted Cabinet Ministers are 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.
With the latest expansion, the total number of cabinet members in the West Bengal government, including the Chief Minister, has risen to 19.
Adhikari had taken oath as Chief Minister on May 9 along with five ministers — Agnimitra Paul, Dilip Ghosh, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtaniya and Khudiram Tudu.
Three BJP legislators — Indranil Khan, Malati Rava Roy and Rajesh Mamahato — were sworn in as Ministers of State with independent charge.
Additionally, 19 legislators took oath as Ministers of State. They 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, held at Lok Bhavan and beginning at 11 a.m., was conducted by Governor R.N. Ravi after Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar Agarwal read out the names of the new ministers.
Following the oath-taking ceremony, the newly inducted ministers were scheduled to proceed to the state secretariat, Nabanna, where a cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief Minister was convened later in the day. Portfolio distribution among the ministers is expected to be finalised during the meeting.
