35 more MLAs inducted into Suvendu's cabinet

13 more full ministers, 3 ministers of state with independent charge and 19 ministers of state have taken oath in the cabinet of the state government of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, India. With the inclusion of 35 new ministers and ministers of state, the total strength of Suvendu's cabinet has reached 41.

Governor RN Ravi administered the oath to the MLAs at a function organized at Lok Bhavan in Kolkata today. The distribution of portfolios to the new ministers will be announced after the cabinet meeting scheduled in the afternoon.

The MLAs who took oath as full ministers include newly elected BJP MLAs Swapan Dasgupta, Shankar Ghosh, Arjun Singh, Tapas Roy, Sharadwat Mukherjee and Jagannath Chatterjee. Apart from this, Dudhkumar Mondal, Deepak Barman, Manoj Orao and Gaurishankar Ghosh have also taken oath as full ministers.

BJP MLAs Rajesh Mahato, Indranil Khan and Malti Ravha Roy have taken oath as Ministers of State with Independent Charge in the government led by Suvendu Adhikari.

The Ministers of State included in the cabinet include Joel Murmu, Ashok Dinda, Anandamoy Barman, Kaushik Chowdhury, Gargi Das Ghosh, Bhaskar Bhattacharya, Dibakar Gharami and Sumana Sarkar. Apart from this, BJP MLAs Shantanu Pramanik, Purnima Chakraborty and Umesh Rai have also taken oath as Ministers of State.

Suvendu Adhikari took oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chief Ministers of other BJP-ruled states and top party leaders at the Brigade Parade Ground on May 9.

Along with Adhikari, BJP MLAs Dilip Ghosh, Nishith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtaniya, Khudiram Tudu and Agnimitra Pal also took oath that day.

Sources said that since the full cabinet has been formed, there may be some reshuffle in the portfolios allotted earlier.

The cabinet expansion was made after discussions on the formation of the cabinet between Suvendu Adhikari, state BJP president Shamik Bhattacharya and the party's central leadership in New Delhi last week.

The BJP formed the government in the state by winning 208 seats in the 294-member assembly in the recently concluded elections.