After Partha Chatterjee's arrest, Major Bengal cabinet, TMC organisational reshuffle in offing

Kolkata, July 30: The TMC is likely to go in for a major organisational overhaul as well as a reshuffle of the state cabinet following the arrest of now-suspended senior party leader Partha Chatterjee in a multi-crore school jobs scam.

Sources said the reshuffle will also aim at an image makeover for the party hit by school jobs scam probe. Chatterjee, the former virtual number two both in the TMC and the government, was stripped of all ministerial responsibilities and suspended from the party following his arrest last week and the recovery of around Rs 50 crore from flats of his associate Arpita Mukherjee.

On Thursday, Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had indicated that a cabinet reshuffle will take place shortly. "Partha Da has been relieved of his ministerial responsibilities. For the time being, I will keep his ministries till a cabinet reshuffle takes place," Banerjee had said.

According to senior TMC leaders privy to the development, overhauling the cabinet was being planned for quite some time, but Chatterjee's arrest hastened the process. "The idea is modeled on Kamaraj Plan of the 1960s when several top Congress ministers had resigned to work for the party. Our plan was mooted last year after TMC returned to power for the third consecutive term.

"Now, only time will tell whether there will be a wholesale reshuffle or only a few key ministries will be changed," a senior TMC leader told .