43-member Mamata ministry to be sworn-in Friday
Kolkata, May 19 (IANS) With the Congress deciding to join the new West Bengal ministry, Mamata Banerjee will be sworn-in Friday at the head of a 43-member ministerial team that includes several giant killers and representatives from various sections of the society.
As many as 36 of the ministers will be from Trinamool, and seven from the Congress, according to official sources.
Among the Trinamool ministers are leader of opposition in the previous assembly Partha Chatterjee, former FICCI general secretary and renowned economist Amit Mitra and former minister and Kolkata mayor Subrata Mukherjee, who served in the Siddhartha Shankar Ray-led Congress ministry between 1972 and 1977.
State Trinamool president Subrata Buxi, Singur legislator Rabindranath Bhattacharya, theatre personality Bratya Basu also figure in the ministry that also includes former Central Bureau of Investigation joint director Upen Biswas and Indian Police Service officer H.A. Sawfi.
Several lawmakers from the minority community, including Firhad Hakim, Javed Khan, Nure Alam Chowdhury and Abdul Karim Chowdhury are in the list that includes represenatatives from most of the districts.
Manjul Krishna Thakur, son of the "baroma" or leader of the All India Matua Mahasangha - a sect of the Scheduled Castes and Other Backward Classes, mainly comprising immigrants from Bangladesh - is also to be sworn in as a member of the council of ministers.
Educationist Rabiranjan Chattopadhayay, who accounted for outgoing Industries Minister Nirpuam Sen at Burdwan South constituency, is also included in the list that was handed over to Governor M.K. Narayanan by the Trinamool Congress Thursday.