Ex-cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla among new faces in Mamata’s cabinet

Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee, former Indian cricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla, retired IPS officers Abani Joardar and James Kujur and singer Indranil Sen will be among the new faces in West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s new council of ministers to be sworn in on Friday.

The strength of the ministry would be 42, including the chief minister, Banerjee announced on Thursday, after submitting the list to governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at the Raj Bhavan.

The 17 fresh entrants in the ministry include Marxist-turned-Trinamool Congress lawmaker Abdur Rezzak Mollah, Suvendu Adhikary, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, Churamoni Mahato, Tapan Dasgupta, Siddiqullah Chowdhury and Asima Patra.

Golam Rabbani, Bacchhu Hansda, Zakir Hossain, Sandhyranai Tudu and Rabindranath Ghosh are the other new inductions in Banerjee’s second ministry.

Banerjee led the Trinamool Congress to a resounding victory in the recent assembly polls.

The West Bengal BJP earlier said it would boycott the swearing in of Banerjee as chief minister, even as some Union ministers, including Arun Jaitley, would attend the programme.

“We are boycotting tomorrow’s (Friday’s) swearing-in ceremony. When our workers are being attacked throughout the state, how can we join the swearing-in ceremony?” state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.

Both the Congress and the Left Front, which fought the assembly polls together, have decided against participating in the ceremony and said they would organise protests against post-poll violence.