Congress forwards list of five ministers to Mamata

Kolkata, Jun 2: Ending uncertainty, the Congress has forwarded a list of five names of ministers for induction into the Mamata Banerjee government, secretariat officials said on Wednesday, June 1.

The new ministers of state are Pramatha Nath Roy, Abu Naser Khan Chowdhury, younger brother of former Railway minister late A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury, Manoj Chakraborty, a close lieutenant of Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Sunil Chandra Tirkey and Sabina Yasmin.

They will be administered oath of office by Governor M K Narayanan at Raj Bhavan on Friday, they said.

"Directed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, I met the chief minister," AICC secretary R C Khuntia who submitted the list to Banerjee, said.

He said that he had not intervened in the allocation of portfolios to the ministers of state during a discussion.

"It is the chief minister's prerogative to announce the names of her ministers and allocate portfolios," he said. 34 cabinet ministers, including the chief minister and four ministers of state took oath on May 20.

PTI