43 TMC leaders sworn as Ministers in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government.

43 TMC leaders were sworn in as Ministers in the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government. 24 Cabinet Ministers, 10 Ministers of State (Independent charge), and 9 Ministers of State were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. While Banerjee has retained many of her previous colleagues, the fresh faces in the Cabinet include Bankim Chandra Hazra, Rathin Ghosh, Pulak Roy and Biplab Mitra.

Most importantly, Amit Mitra serving as the Finance Minister of the state since 2011 has been included in the Cabinet. As he did not contest the West Bengal polls, the ex-FICCI secretary-general will have 6 months to get elected to the state Assembly. Former IPS officer Humayun Kabir and Ratna De Nag are among the list of Ministers who will hold Independent Charge of a Department. Meanwhile, cricketer-turned-politician Manoj Tiwary too found a place in the Council of Ministers.

After a hard-fought election campaign, TMC sprung a surprise by decisively winning the West Bengal election by bagging 213 seats whereas BJP could win in only 77 constituencies. The voter turnout for the seats that went to the polls in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth phases was 84.63 per cent, 86.11 per cent, 84.61 per cent, 79.90 per cent, 82.49 per cent, 79.11 per cent, 76.90 per cent and 78.32 per cent respectively. While the JP Nadda-led party won 74 more seats than the previous election, its vote share of 38.13% could not pose a challenge to TMC which garnered a vote share of 47.94%.
While the ruling party bettered its performance compared to 2016, it suffered a minor blip as WB CM Mamata Banerjee lost from Nandigram to her BJP opponent Suvendu Adhikari. However, barring the Nandigram MLA, most other TMC leaders who had switched over to BJP prior to the election could not win their seats. Even ex-nominated Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, Union Minister Babul Supriyo and BJP Lok Sabha MP Locket Chatterjee had to face defeat.

Report by Chetali S M
Reported on – 10/05/2021