I
n West Bengal, the cabinet expansion under Suvendu Adhikari has been completed, in which a total of 35 ministers took oath. The programme began at 11:00 a.m.
In this cabinet expansion, 13 MLAs took oath as Cabinet Ministers, while the remaining ministers were sworn in as Ministers of State. With this, the total number of ministers in the West Bengal government has increased to 41.
At a ceremony held at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata, Governor R. N. Ravi administered the oath of office and secrecy to these ministers.
The core team of West Bengal consists of a total of 6 members, and they carry very important responsibilities.
Suvendu Adhikari (Chief Minister) has direct control over the Home and Hill Affairs, Law, Finance, General Administration, and Health departments.
Dilip Ghosh holds the Panchayat, Rural Development, and Animal Resources Development departments.
Agnimitra Paul, a prominent face of the BJP, holds the portfolios of Women and Child Development, Social Welfare, and Urban Development.
Nisith Pramanik holds the portfolios of North Bengal Development, Sports, and Youth Welfare ministries.
Ashok Kirtania is responsible for the Food and Supplies and Cooperation departments.
Khudiram Tudu holds the departments of Backward Classes Welfare, Minority Affairs, and Tribal Development.
On June 1, 13 MLAs were inducted as Cabinet Ministers.
Senior BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta has been assigned the responsibility of the Economic Policy and Planning Department.
Arjun Singh has been assigned the Heavy Industries, Labour Department, and Industrial Law and Order portfolios.
Shankar Ghosh has been appointed as the Cabinet Minister for the state's Higher Education and School Education departments.
Senior leader Tapas Roy has been assigned to the Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Coordination Ministry.
Gannath Chattopadhyay has been entrusted with the Public Works Department (PWD) and Administrative Affairs portfolios.
Dudh Kumar Mondal has been assigned the Agriculture and Rural Infrastructure Development portfolio.
Deepak Barman has been assigned to the Irrigation and Waterways Ministry.
Manoj Kumar Oraon has been given Cabinet-level responsibility for North Bengal Hill Development and Tribal Welfare.
Gauri Shankar Ghosh has been assigned to the Transport Ministry.
Sharadwat Mukhopadhyay has been assigned to the Medical Education and Health Policy Implementation Department.
Kalyan Chakraborty has been assigned several important portfolios, including Power, Energy, and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
Arup Kumar Das has been assigned the portfolios of Panchayati Raj Expansion and Cottage Industries.
Ajay Kumar Poddar has been assigned the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Commerce Ministry portfolios.
The government has also given Independent Charge to three MLAs, allowing them to function independently. These Ministers of State (Independent Charge) do not have to work under a Cabinet Minister and are responsible for managing their departments on their own.
The first name is Dr. Indranil Khan, who has been assigned to the Health and Family Welfare Ministry (Independent Charge).
The second name is Malati Rava Roy, who has been assigned the Scheduled Castes (SC) Welfare and Social Empowerment Ministry under Independent Charge.
The third and final name is Rajesh Mahato, who has been assigned the Forest, Environment, and Regional Natural Resources Department under Independent Charge.
In this cabinet expansion, 19 MLAs were sworn in as Ministers of State (MoS).
These are junior ministers at the state level who work alongside and are attached to the respective Cabinet Ministers to help ensure the smooth functioning of important departments.
- Ashok Dinda — Sports and Youth Welfare Department (associated with Nisith Pramanik)
- Umesh Rai — Urban Development and Hindi-speaking Coordination Department
- Koushik Chowdhury — School Education Department (associated with Shankar Ghosh)
- Kalita Maji — Women and Child Development Department (associated with Agnimitra Paul)
- Moumita Biswas Misra — Refugee Rehabilitation and Social Assistance Department
- Gargi Das Ghosh — Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Drinking Water Projects
- Dipankar Jana — Transport and Rural Road Connectivity Department
- Purnima Chakraborty — Women’s Safety, Social Welfare, and Child Rights
- Bishal Lama — Hill Area Development Department (Darjeeling & Kalimpong)
- Harikrishna Bera — Cooperation and Rural Banking Network
- Anandamoy Burman — North Bengal Development and Panchayati Raj Coordination
- Santanu Pramanik — Fisheries and Coastal Area Management Department
- Biraj Biswas — Cottage Industries, Handloom, and Textile Industry
- Amiya Kisku — Forest Restoration and Rural Tribal Livelihood Department
- Joyel Murmu — Tribal Development and Scheduled Tribe (ST) Welfare
- Bhaskar Bhattacharya — Information Technology (IT) and Digital Governance Department
- Dibakar Gharami — Agriculture Department and Farmers’ Welfare Schemes
- Sumana Sarkar — Women’s Self-Help Groups and Skill Development
- Nadiar Chand Bauri — Backward Classes Welfare and Scheduled Castes (SC) Welfare Support Department.
