West Bengal cabinet expansion: 9 new ministers sworn-in

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, August 3, carried out a major reshuffle of her cabinet as nine people including Babul Supriyo, former BJP central minister, were sworn in. This cabinet reshuffle, the first since the TMC returned to power for the third consecutive term last year, came when the party is facing a crisis over the arrest of senior minister Partha Chatterjee by the ED over the school jobs scam.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee carried out a major reshuffle of her cabinet with nine people including Babul Supriyo, were sworn in. Credit: PTI Photo

Of the nine, five were administered oath as cabinet ministers, two as ministers of state and two others as ministers of state - independent charge by Governor La Ganesan. Credit: PTI Photo

The cabinet reshuffle, the first since the TMC returned to power for the third consecutive term last year, came when the party is facing a crisis over the arrest of senior minister Partha Chatterjee by the ED over the school jobs scam. Credit: PTI Photo

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and other cabinet ministers were present at the programme. According to TMC insiders, with the inclusion of eight new faces and the likely omission of four others from the ministry, this is the biggest reshuffle since the party came to power for the first time in the state in 2011. Credit: PTI Photo

Banerjee carried out a major overhaul in her party on August 1. She had said that four-five new faces would be inducted into the new cabinet, while a similar number of present cabinet members would be utilised for party work. Finally, the numbers inducted were far higher than earlier expected. Of them, Babul Supriyo, Udayan Guha, Partha Bhowmick, Snehasis Chakraborty and Pradip Mazumdar were sworn in as cabinet ministers. Credit: PTI Photo