West Bengal Cabinet reshuffle on Wednesday, 4-5 new faces in: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Aug 01: Putting all the speculations over a Cabinet reshuffle to rest, the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced that the cabinet reshuffle will be held on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters, Mamata said,''Many of them are writing a lot. We don't have plan to dissolve the whole ministry & form a new one. Yes, there will be a reshuffle. We lost ministers Subrata Mukherjee, Sadhan Pande. Partha is in jail so all their work has to be done. Not possible for me to handle alone.''

''We will do reshuffle on Wednesday, there will be 4-5 new faces,'' she said.

The speculations were triggered when Banerjee, last week, hinted that restructuring was soon likely. "Partha Da has been relieved of his ministerial responsibilities. For the time being, I will keep his ministries till a cabinet reshuffle takes place," Mamata Banerjee had said.

The development comes days after the arrest of TMC veteran Partha Ghosh in connection with the alleged multi-crore SSC scam. 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 ₹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.

Chatterjee was in charge of five key ministries, including industry, commerce and enterprises and parliamentary affairs.

The TMC leader also pointed out that the organisational overhaul may reflect the policy of 'one person, one post' call given by leaders close to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

This is not the first time that graft allegations have hit the TMC in the last 12 years of its rule in West Bengal. Earlier, four MPs and ministers each of the party were arrested for alleged involvement in Saradha and Narada scams.

However, the party had then termed it political vendetta, unlike Chatterjee's case when the party shunted him out.