Kolkata, June 1 (IANS) A total of 35 BJP MLAs were sworn in as Ministers at the Lok Bhavan on Monday, marking an expansion of the cabinet led by Suvendu Adhikari in West Bengal.

This expansion comes over three weeks after the Suvendu Adhikari-led first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government took oath in the state after winning the Assembly elections.

The 35 new ministers include 13 cabinet ministers — Deepak Barman, Tapas Roy, Dr Shankar Ghosh, Manoj Kumar Oraon, Arjun Singh, Gouri Shankar Ghosh, Swapan Dasgupta, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, Kalyan Chakraborty, Ajay Poddar, Dr Saradwat Mukherjee, Dudh Kumar Mondal and Anup Kumar Das.

However, their portfolios are yet to be announced.

With the induction of the three 13 new cabinet ministers, the total number of cabinet members in the new West Bengal government, including the Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, increases to 19.

Adhikari took oath as the Chief Minister on May 9. The five other cabinet members who took oath along with him on May 9 were Agnimitra Paul, Dilip Ghosh, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtaniya and Khudiram Tudu.

Apart from these 13 cabinet members, three other BJP legislators also took oath as Ministers of State (independent charge). They are Indranil Khan, Malati Rava Roy and Rajesh Mamahato.

At the same time, 19 other BJP legislators took oath as Ministers of State. They are Joel Murmu, Hare Krishna Bera, Anandamay Barman, Ashok Dinda, Nadiar Chand Bauri, Vishal Lama, Shantanu Pramanik, Moumita Biswas Mishra, Umesh Ray, Purnima Chakravarty, Kaushik Chowdhury, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami, Amiya Kisku, Kalita Majhi, Gargi Das Ghosh, Biraj Biswas, Dipankar Jana and Sumana Sarkar.

At a colourful programme at Lok Sabha in Kolkata, which started exactly at 11 a.m., the swearing-in ceremony began with the Chief Secretary, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, reading out the names of the newly inducted ministers one after another.

First, the names of the cabinet ministers were read out, followed by the names of the ministers of state (independent charges) and finally the names of the ministers of state. The Governor, R.N. Ravi, administered the oath ceremony.

After taking the oath, the new ministers will go to the state secretariat of Nabanna. A meeting of the cabinet chaired by CM Adhikari has been convened at the state secretariat at 3 p.m. The Chief Minister is likely to distribute the portfolios among the new ministers there.

–IANS

src/dpb