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Cabinet reshuffle tomorrow, 5-6 new faces to be inducted: Mamata
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday carried out a major organisational reshuffle in the TMC and announced that a cabinet rejig would take place on Wednesday to induct “five to six new faces”.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday carried out a major organisational reshuffle in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and announced that a cabinet rejig would take place on Wednesday to induct “five to six new faces”.
The developments come close on the heels of the arrest of former minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in government schools on July 23. Last week, he was stripped of his portfolios (commerce, industry and public enterprises, information technology and parliamentary affairs) and his positions (state secretary general and national vice-president) in the party.
During a cabinet meeting, Banerjee also decided to carve out seven new administrative districts out of the existing 23 districts. She later told reporters she was doing this for better governance.
Also read: Partha Chatterjee dialled Mamata 4 times after his arrest. She did not respond
The chief minister is scheduled to leave for Delhi on August 4 to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over disbursement of central funds and to attend the Niti Aayog governing council meeting on August 7. Banerjee has skipped most of the Niti Aayog meetings in the past.
“There will be a small reshuffle on Wednesday. Around four to five ministers will be used for organisational work. We will induct five to six new faces in the cabinet,” Banerjee told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
“Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande have died. Partha Chatterjee is in custody. Who will perform their duties? It is not possible for me to handle everything alone. We have to do it together,” she added.
Chatterjee was arrested on July 23 after 27 hours of interrogation in connection with the cash-for-jobs scandal, in which the ED has thus far recovered cash worth ₹50 crore. He was the state education minister from 2014 to 2021 and the alleged irregularities took place in 2018.
Among the organisational changes introduced by the party was the appointment of Biswajit Das, sitting Bagdah legislator who switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) before the 2021 assembly polls and returned to the TMC without resigning from the BJP, as president of Bongaon unit in North 24 Parganas.
“We have to abide by the party’s decisions,” Gopal Seth, the senior leader Das replaced, said.
TMC leader Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, an old loyalist of Banerjee, was appointed as president of Barasat unit although she is counted among the most active Lok Sabha members of the party.
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The overhaul at the level of district chairpersons and presidents is significant, TMC leaders said, adding that some of the new incumbents were known to be close to Banerjee’s nephew and national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, whose influence in the party has grown in recent years.
Snehashish Chakraborty, a Hooghly district legislator known to be close to Abhishek, was relieved of organisational responsibilities, triggering speculations that he may be made a minister.
The TMC also decided to divide several of its old district organisations into two or three units with a chairperson and president for each of them, party functionaries said.
While bureaucrats claimed the state government has decided to carve out new districts to improve governance and increase allocation of funds from the Centre, political observers believe such steps are being taken for logistical convenience ahead of panchayat polls next year and the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
