Mamata to take oath with 41 ministers tomorrow

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will take oath on Friday as the next chief minister of West Bengal along with 41 party MLAs as ministers in the new cabinet in the state assembly.

Banerjee on Thursday met state Governor K N Tripathi and submitted the list of MLAs who will take oath on Friday at the gala swearing-in ceremony to be held on prestigious Red Road in Kolkata.

Among the 41 MLAs there will be 17 new faces.

“I have submitted the list to the honourable governor. Along with me, altogether 42 of us will take oath tomorrow at the swearing-in ceremony. There has been representation from all districts, except Malda, caste, religion and creed. In Malda we don’t have any representation. Out of the 42 there are a few new faces. The rest are the same,” Banerjee said.

The new faces in the state cabinet include former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Shovandeb Chattopadhaya, Kolkata Mayor Shovan Chatterjee, Abani Mohan Joarder, Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikari, Rabindranath Ghosh, Churamani Mahato, James Kujur, Siddikullah Choudhury, Asima Patra, Ghulam Rabbani, Zakir Hossain, Sandhya Rani Tudu, singer Indranil Sen, Tapan Dasgupta and B Hansda.

Banerjee said the portfolios are yet to be decided.

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Union minister Babool Supriyo, Bangladesh industry minister, Bhutan prime minister, Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Singh Yadav had confirmed presence in the ceremony, she said.

Banerjee said the swearing-in ceremony would be open to the common people.

“Apart from the seats allotted to the card-holders, seating arrangement has been done for the general people who are willing to attend the programme. They don't need any cards to attend the programme as we have dedicated this swearing-in ceremony for the common people,” Banerjee said.