West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will reshuffle her Cabinet on Wednesday before leaving for New Delhi, where she is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“There will be a small reshuffle on Wednesday. Around four to five ministers will be deputed for organisational work. We will induct five to six new faces in the Cabinet,” Banerjee told reporters on Monday.
This will be the first such reshuffle since the Trinamool Congress (TMC) returned to power for the third consecutive term in May last year.
Two Cabinet ministers Subrata Mukherjee and Sadhan Pande died while Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Partha Chatterjee in connection with an alleged multi-crore recruitment scam in government schools.
Central agencies have questioned and raided another minister Paresh Adhikary’s premises in connection with the alleged scam. The Calcutta high court also removed his daughter as a school teacher.
“While the chief minister has sacked Chatterjee from the Cabinet, junior education minister Paresh Adhikary could be dropped from the Cabinet,” said a TMC leader, who did not want to be named.
Former Union minister Babul Supriyo, who joined the TMC in September 2021, was among those expected to be inducted into the Cabinet.